The Education & Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS) has been awarded a 2-year grant from the European Commission (DG Environment) for a Pilot Project ‘Promoting alternatives to animal testing through accessible and harmonised education & training’. ETPLAS will develop an IT platform that will deliver tools to enable course organisers to assess whether those persons carrying out procedures on animals have met the required level of competence in theoretical and practical skills.

The Action has 5 key Activities which will build to deliver this objective:

1. Development of guidance for producing assessment criteria for learning outcomes
2. A database of assessment criteria for core modules and Function A specific modules
3. Establishment of a question database for theoretical core and Function A specific modules
4. Establishment of a database of assessments of common practical tasks for Function A persons
5. Establishment of the required IT infrastructure on the ETPLAS platform

Each of these Activities will be delivered through working groups with representatives of stakeholders from the LAS community such as course providers and members of accrediting bodies.

Early in the New Year a call will be announced for nominations to the first three working groups.