19 March 2021

Brooke launches new ethical guidelines for researchers

For the first time, Brooke’s Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB) have issued guidelines to help researchers and their teams, both within Brooke and externally, consider ethical concerns at the stage of research proposal development.

Brooke aims to be evidence-based in our programmatic work and the creation of these guidelines is a positive step towards achieving that aim by proactively engaging researchers in the ethical review process. We hope that this will encourage collaboration with Brooke and with AWERB from an early stage and inspire greater consideration of the ways in which both humans and animals can be safeguarded.

Kate Fletcher, Senior Manager, Global Animal Welfare

At Brooke, animal welfare is at the heart of what we do. We use our research on animal welfare on a daily basis, to inform our programmatic and advocacy work. Based on the ground, our country programme teams are in direct contact with local communities and are constantly forming new research questions.  

To support our ongoing research work, Brooke’s AWERB ensures that research proposals and protocols minimise both human and animal welfare risks. Consisting of animal welfare experts from across the organisation, AWERB works to ensure that research carried out by Brooke staff, consultants or partners meets ethical research standards.

By formalising our learning to date and ensuring ethical issues are considered as early on in the research process as possible, we want ethical review to be a function of research - not an obstacle.

Kimberly Wells, Senior Manager, Global Animal Welfare

To find out more about Brooke’s animal welfare work and to access the guidelines, click here