Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) Refinement Research Award

Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) Refinement Research Award is sponsored by Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). This award funds research projects aimed at developing or testing innovative methods of refinement to the care, husbandry, or housing of animals in laboratories to improve their welfare.

#### Promoting ideas to improve the welfare of animals used in research The Refinement Research Award provides funds of up to US$15,000 to support the generation and testing of innovative techniques to improve the care, husbandry, and housing of animals used in research to improve their welfare. * The 2026 application cycle is now open and will close on October 11 at 11:59pm ET. * Awardees will be selected and notified in December.

_If you wish to be notified via email when the application cycle opens, please contact us at__researchaward@awionline. org__. You may remove yourself from the list at any time.

_ Use our online system to complete and submit the application form. The application requires the following documents: * Proposed budget and details * Curriculum vitae (CV) or resume * Letter of support from the host institution Preview the application form * This award is open to residents of the United States or Canada, and the project must be conducted in the United States or Canada.

* Animal care staff, veterinarians, students, and researchers are welcome to apply. * Applicants can apply every year and will be equally eligible for funding even if they have received funding in previous years. Projects that were submitted but not selected for funding in previous years can be resubmitted.

* Applicants may submit more than one application per funding cycle. In most cases, however, AWI will fund no more than one project (through _either_ a Refinement Research Award _or_ anImplementing Refinement Grant) per applicant per funding cycle. * The intent of this funding is to facilitate the development of specific refinements that will have a direct impact on animals used in research.

Therefore, applied research projects will be prioritized over theoretical projects with indirect impacts. * Projects can be conducted in any setting (laboratory, farm, zoo, sanctuary, shelter, etc.), but the study’s conclusions must be applicable to animals used in research. * Salaries or stipends are eligible for funding.

* As a policy, AWI will not fund the following: * Projects that inflict avoidable stress * Projects that require killing animals as part of the methodology or outcome measures * The purchase of animals * Indirect/overhead costs * Costs to disseminate results (e.g., conference expenses, publication fees) * Proposals may be part of larger research projects, but the portion included in the proposal should be broadly applicable, and the research component must be completed within one year (shorter durations are encouraged).

* As a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is organized and operates to further our charitable mission, AWI reserves the right not to fund individuals who have a history of opposing AWI’s mission or Position Statement on Research and Testing with Animals, either as an individual or through organizational affiliation. ## What is the Review Process? * Applications are reviewed by two independent reviewers who are not affiliated with AWI.

* Applications are anonymized by AWI before they are sent to the reviewers, and reviewers score each application independently (i.e., without input from the other reviewer or from AWI).

* Reviewers score applications based on the following criteria: * Compatibility with the award’s aims, scope, and eligibility criteria * Impact (depth, breadth, generalizability, innovation, directness) * Feasibility (strength and weaknesses of study design, methodology, and analysis) * Once reviewers submit their scores, AWI selects winners from the short list of highest-ranking projects based on reviewer feedback and fit with AWI’s mission and priorities.

The number of projects funded in any given year depends on funding availability. _If you are interested in being an independent reviewer, please contact us at__researchaward@awionline. org__.

Reviewers cannot submit project proposals for funding in the same year that they are reviewing. _ ## Additional Information * Award recipients must agree to submit a 500-word summary of the results of the project, including photographs (if applicable), at its conclusion. This summary may be edited for potential publication, with the recipient’s approval, in the _AWI Quarterly_ magazine.

* Award recipients are expected to submit their results for publication in an appropriate journal or presentation at a widely attended scientific meeting. * If IACUC or ACC approval is needed, award recipients will need to provide their approved IACUC or ACC protocol title and number before funds will be disbursed. Contactresearchaward@awionline.

orgfor additional information. * **Sarah Michelle Sparks, student, Prescott College**, in affiliation with Texas Biomedical Research Institute, to study the gut microbiome of captive marmosets, which is easily disrupted by bacterial infections, to help establish procedures for earlier interventions and tailored treatments to reduce the marmosets’ disease risk.

* **Dr. Lara Rangel, associate professor, University of California, San Diego**, to record and compare the vocalizations of rats in the wild versus in the laboratory under various social conditions to assess how social complexity influences rat communication and welfare. * **Dr. Michael Brunt of MWB Research Consulting Services**to survey public attitudes about current research practices involving insects, including live dissection.

* **Dr. Samuel Olutunde Durosaro of Indiana University Indianapolis**to develop species-specific protocols to safely and humanely anesthetize insects, such as cockroaches, crickets, and yellow mealworms. * **Dr. Robert Gerlai of the University of Toronto Mississauga**for developing new handling methods to reduce stress and anxiety in zebrafish.

* **Dr. Kristina Horback of the University of California, Davis**for studying the impact of enriched housing on the learning ability, social behavior, and overall welfare of laboratory-housed sows. * **Maya Bodnar of the University of British Columbia**for refining the “drop” method for induction of anesthesia in mice.

Related Publication") * **Lace Lively of Texas Biomedical Research Institute**for investigating the link between compassion fatigue in laboratory animal care professionals and the social housing status of nonhuman primates at the facilities where they work (i.e., whether primates are housed singly or in pairs/groups).

* **Jouvay Pantophlet of CUNY’s College of Staten Island**for testing the usefulness and safety of waste newspaper processed into compressed columns as burrowing substrate for naked mole-rats. * **Raymond Vagell of Texas State University**for determining whether cognitive testing affects stress levels in lemurs, using a noninvasive salivary cortisol test.

* **Dr. Becca Franks of New York University**for investigating play behavior in fish; specifically, whether fish engage in play behavior, what circumstances elicit it (e.g., air bubbles), and how play can be used to assess welfare in this taxon.

* **Alexander Greig of Texas Biomedical Research Institute**for assessing the behavioral and physiological effects of implementing visual barriers in the housing of captive marmosets to reduce social stress. * **Dr. Julie Menard of the University of Calgary**for testing a noninvasive alternative to sampling the intestinal microbiome in dogs.

Related Publication") * **Dr. Cathy Schuppli of the University of British Columbia**for developing a positive reinforcement training program for laboratory-housed pigs and mice to improve human-animal interactions in the research setting.

* **Dr. Lucía Améndola of the University of British Columbia**for a systematic review of the literature to critically evaluate the effects of different environmental enrichment strategies on affective states in mice. * **Brittney Armitage-Brown of Queen’s University**for testing rhesus macaque preferences for physical versus touchscreen-based tasks used as cognitive enrichment.

* **Dr. Giridhar Athrey and Constance Woodman of Texas A&M University**for testing the suitability of 3D printing materials for use as environmental enrichment items for laboratory birds and other species.

Related Publication * **Dr. Christopher Cheleuitte-Nieves of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center**for assessing the effects of natural, species-appropriate, visual environments on stress and behavior of indoor-housed macaques and African green monkeys.

Related Publication") * **Margaret Dye of the Duke Lemur Center**for building and assessing an enrichment management tracking system for documenting and monitoring multiple enrichment activities that impact an animal’s environment and welfare. * **Sasha Prasad-Shreckengast of CUNY Hunter College**for a project assessing voluntary interaction of carp with novel environmental enrichment items that promote cognitive stimulation and agency.

Related Publication") * **Dr. Lucía Améndola of the University of British Columbia**for assessing the welfare benefits of using playpens for research mice. Related Publication") * **Dr. Rachel Dennis of the University of Maryland**for assessing the effectiveness of specific environmental enrichments on laboratory quail welfare.

* **Dr. Brianna Gaskill of Purdue University**for analyzing social networks ofgroup-housed male laboratory miceto identify effective interventions for aggression. Related Publication") * **Dr. Nicole Herndon of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign**forassessingbest practices for helping research dogs retire to forever homes.

* **Rachel van Vliet of McGill University**for investigating the use of species-specific behavior by animal care staff as a source of enrichment for macaques and marmosets in laboratories. Related Publication") * **Dr. Kathleen Coda of the University of Illinois at Chicago**for developing and validating environmental enrichment strategies to improve the welfare of rabbits housed in standard-size laboratory cages.

Related Publication") * **Dr. Brianna Gaskill of Purdue University**for investigating the link between laboratory personnel’s professional quality of life and the provision of environmental enrichment to animals under their care. Related Publication")