AWI Awards Eight Refinement Grants to Improve the Welfare of Animals in Laboratories

March 12, 2026 in Advancing Refinements to Animal Care, Animals in Laboratories

Washington, DC—The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) today recognizes eight Refinement Research Award and Implementing Refinement Grant recipients who are working to improve the lives of animals used in laboratories across the United States and Canada.

Since its founding 75 years ago, AWI has encouraged laboratory personnel to care for animals with compassion to minimize their pain and distress and to provide them with comfortable housing that allows the expression of species-specific behaviors such as foraging and social play. Through the Refinement Research Award, AWI offers up to $15,000 in funding to develop or validate innovative methods of refinement to the housing, handling, or care of animals in research. Implementing Refinement Grant recipients receive up to $8,000 in funding to provide additional staff training or purchase new equipment to improve the welfare of animals used in research.  

Refinement, as defined by William Russell and Rex Burch in their landmark 1959 book The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, refers to strategies used to “reduce to an absolute minimum the amount of distress imposed on those animals that are still used” in research. Refinement is one of the “3Rs”—along with replacement and reduction—that make up the guiding principles for the humane conduct of experimentation using animals.

“We have a duty to provide animals who are used in research with the highest standards of care,” said Dr. Joanna Makowska, director and senior scientist for AWI’s Animals in Laboratories Program. “For 75 years, AWI has worked to improve those standards and facilitate their implementation in laboratories. We are pleased to offer these grants to researchers, students, and laboratory staff who are dedicated to improving the lives of animals under their charge.”

The eight grantees are:

Refinement Research Award Recipients:

• 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.

Implementing Refinement Grant Recipients:

• James Sheehy, animal facilities supervisor, IIT Research Institute, to purchase and install stainless steel vertical socialization tunnels for the institute’s colony of long-tailed macaques, doubling their living space and adding vertical complexity.
• Dr. Wai Hanson, senior clinical veterinarian and assistant professor, Emory University, to purchase and install high-quality images of gravel—designed to mimic natural substrate—beneath 780 tanks housing some 13,000 zebrafish across two facilities. This simple, easy-to-implement refinement has been shown to reduce zebrafish stress levels.
• Lillian Basom, director of operations, Franklin and Marshall College Vivarium, to improve the facility’s rat housing, resulting in a fivefold increase in the current living space, enhancing its complexity and promoting the expression of natural behaviors such as climbing, upright standing, and play.
• Cecily Burbidge, animal care and welfare supervisor, University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, to purchase high-quality nesting boxes and provide increased opportunities for exercise and enrichment for the institution’s colony of woodchucks.
• Julia Goldman, clinical veterinarian at the Baylor College of Medicine, and Dr. Jennifer Mitchell, associate professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, were awarded funds to purchase tunnels for handling mice. Tunnel handling is proven to be a more humane and less stressful alternative to the traditional practice of picking up mice by their tails.

Both the Refinement Research Award and Implementing Refinement Grant are awarded annually. Applications for the 2026 Refinement funding cycle will be available later this year.