£4 million available to solve the 2023 CRACK IT challenges

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3RS) has announced four new challenges in its open innovation funding competition.

The NC3RS is a UK-based scientific organisation dedicated to helping the research community worldwide to replace, reduce and refine (3R) the use of animals for medical testing.

The competition aims to provide the opportunity to deliver scientific and 3Rs benefits through the development and commercialisation of 3Rs products and services that are tailored to end-user needs.

The 2023 challenges include:

• Challenge 44 - SensOoChip: Increasing the reproducibility and predictive power of organ-on-chips through multiparametric real-time monitoring and data modelling.
• Challenge 45 - CrossDART: multi species in vitro developmental toxicity testing.
• Challenge 46 - FET4Thyroid: A Fish Eleutheroembryo Test for Thyroid Activity.
• Challenge 47 - aTRACKtive: Improved in vivo identification system for real-time, early-life individualised tracking and behavioural and welfare analysis in mice.

These challenges are run using the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) provided by Innovate UK.

Learn more about the 2023 CRACK IT challenges, including key dates and deadlines.

To find out more, potential applicants can join launch webinars for each challenge:

• Challenge 44 - SensOoChip: Tuesday 5 September 2023
• Challenge 45 - CrossDART: Wednesday 6 September 2023
• Challenge 46 - FET4Thyroid: Wednesday 6 September 2023
• Challenge 47 - aTRACKtive: Thursday 7 September 2023

Register for the webinars now.

First published 8 August 2023