Francopa
France
MEMBERS of FRANCOPA
- INERIS Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques
- ANSES Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire
- ANSM – Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé
- LFDA – La Fondation Droit Animal, éthique et science
- MTE – Ministère de la transition écologique
- OPAL – Recherche Expérimentale et Protection de l’Animal en Laboratoire
- SPTC – Société de Toxicologie Cellulaire et Moléculaire
- France CHIMIE – Union des Industries Chimiques
FRANCOPA is the French platform dedicated to development, validation, and dissemination of alternative methods in animal testing hosted by Ineris.
It was created on the 6th July 2007 as an expert group at an inaugural meeting at the Ministry of Research.
The platform gathers French partners interested in promoting the development of alternative methods for the replacement of animal testing in regulatory purpose, to bridge the gap between on the one hand, researcher and new tools development, and on the other hand, regulatory process and the use of new decision support tools in environment and human health risk assessment.
FRANCOPA is composed by partners representing governmental institutions, academic research, industry and non governmental organisations for animal welfare.
Expert groups are formed within the platform to elaborate proposals and promote 3R methods in specific domains (education and training, critical assessment of alternative methods, basic and applied research…).
The exchanges in these different expert groups are then published as reports and desiminated during FRANCOPA symposia or workshops.
To promote the 3R methods and in order to facilitate the exchange of information and tools, FRANCOPA and its partners has organised workshops and seminars: waiving animal testing for regulatory purposes, read-across, use of organoids and ex vivo approaches in basic and applied research.
FRANCOPA published a state of the art on 3R methods and practices in France, together with recommendations to the French government in 2010, last updated in 2016 (Download here) .
FRANCOPA aims at facilitating the sharing and exchanges of information and opinions among people involved in the development or promotion of alternative methods in animal testing.
- Newsletters related to methodological advances and FRANCOPA news
- Report on state of the art on alternative methods on animal testing
- Waiving animal testing for regulatory purposes
- Using read-across to predict the sensitising potential of chemicals: an exercise by the FRANCOPA research working group
In 2020, members of Francopa published the book “ Quelles alternatives en experimentation animale” (in French) (Quae Eds).
The aim of this book is to provide as complete and impartial an overview as possible of these methods in their applications, advantages and limitations. It also deals with the ethical issues and regulations that govern them. These methods are not intended to be systematic replacements, but rather a harmonious development of the different approaches in order to provide the best possible response to the scientific or regulatory questions raised, while respecting the animal.