Submission of experimental projects with animals

How to submit an experimental project with animals.
The Ethics Committee on Animal Experiments (CEEA) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), evaluates all projects that use experimental animals, on submission of the project through the application on the intranet (See CEEAH/Submission of projects).
 
The researcher must submit the project with the associated procedure/s. This project will be reviewed by the animal welfare adviser (ABA) at the site where the project is to be conducted, and then it will be evaluated by all members of the CEEA in their next meeting. Once the project gets the approval of the CEEA, it must be submitted to an empowered body and then to the competent body to be announced or authorised.
 
Type of project
A project is understood to be a programme or work with a defined scientific objective and which involves one or several procedures.
Types of projects:

  1. Type 1 Projects are projects in which the following three circumstances are present simultaneously.
    • They only involve procedures classified as "non-recovery" "mild" or "moderate".
    • They do not use primates.
    • They are undertaken to comply with regulations or legal requirements, or for production or diagnosis purposes through established methods.
  2. Type 2 Projects are projects in which the following circumstances are present simultaneously.
    • They only involve procedures classified as "non-recovery" "mild" or "moderate".
    • They do not use primates.
  3. Type 3 projects are all projects other than the above.

 
Express permission must be obtained before undertaking Type 2 projects and Type 3 projects, and Type 1 projects with one or more procedures included in any of the provisions of Article 34 of Decree 214/1997, of 30 July.
Notification must be given of Type 1 projects with one or more procedures included in any of the provisions of Article 34 of Decree 214/1997, of 30 July.
Extensions to permits or notifications of animal experimentation projects must be requested before the end of their period of validity.

Severity
The technical report on the animal experimentation procedures must state the severity of the procedure (non-recovery, mild, moderate or severe), as defined in Art. 27 of RD 53/2013, of 1 de February. The classification criteria are set out in Annexe 9 of RD 53/2013, of 1 February.
 
Non-technical summary (NTS)
The standard form Non-technical project summary must be submitted with the permit request for experimentation procedures, as per RD 53/2013, of 1 de February. This form can be downloaded from the OGE website. This document must contain no personal data, such as names or addresses, and must not exceed one page in length (a maximum of 500 words is recommended). It must be written in Spanish as it will be posted on the website htp://www.magrama.gob.es. It may be accompanied by a version in Catalan.
 
Retrospective evaluation
A retrospective evaluation is only mandatory when projects are classified as type III whereas among type I and II, only those presenting a severity classified as "severe" the retrospective evaluation is also mandatory. This retrospective evaluation will be made by the empowered body.
It will evaluate:
·     whether the objectives of the project have been achieved;
·     the damage inflicted on the animals, the number and species of animals used and the severity of the procedures;
·     any elements that can help to better meet the requirement of replacement, reduction and refinement.
 
 
Projects not undertaken at registered centres
For procedures that are performed at non-registered centres, complementary information must be attached to the project.
 
Documents to submit to the Generalitat

  1. Application for permit / notification (to be filled in by the CEEA).
  2. Project report (to be filled in by the researcher responsible; to be attached in section 4 of the application). This form can be downloaded from the OGE website.
  3. Procedure report (to be filled in by the researcher responsible, PDF generated by the application).
  4. NTS (to be filled in by the researcher responsible; to be attached in section 9 of the application). This form can be downloaded from the OGE website.
  5. CEEA report.
  6. OH report.

OGE
The Generalitat forms can be found on this link.