Project plans are used by the staff in The Animal Facility to get an overview of both experiments and the breeding of experimental animals. The project plans contain information about the responsible license holder, the participating researchers, qualifications, invoicing, experimental activity and need of animals. Both types of project plans are described in more detail below.

Project plans for experiments

The Animal Facility is expected to keep track of ongoing experimental activities, both by the Danish authorities, the Animal Experiments Inspectorate, and also by the Department of Biomedicine and the Animal Welfare Committee at the Faculty of Health.

The project plan is not intended as a repetition of the animal experiment license, as this is often complex and contains descriptions of many different procedures. In the project plan, you must make a brief and accurate description of the procedures to be carried out in the given experiment. It must contain a brief description of which humane endpoints are relevant for the experiment, and it must be listed who is the primary contact person for the experiment. In addition, the project plan is also used to secure correct working environment and safety, and a risk assessment is made of used biological agents, toxic substances, chemicals, etc.

The information in the project plan is used by the staff in The Animal Facility to allocate the necessary resources and support the experimental activities as best as possible, but also to ensure that the experimental activities comply with the given animal experimental license.

Project plans are typically valid for a few weeks up to a year at a time.

The completed project plans for experiments must be sent to projectplan@biomed.au.dk and the template can be downloaded to the right. Please be aware that processing time may be up to three weeks.

Project plans for breeding

The breeding project plan is used especially for GMO strains to specify which genotypes are desired, how the breeding should be set up, as well as to describe the most important welfare issues and any phenotypes that may be present in the animals. In addition, the breeding project plan is used to create an overview of how much space and staff must be allocated to the individual strain, and to match the researcher's need for experimental animals as precisely as possible, without wasting animals.

If you wish to import and breed new GMO strains, it is necessary to fill out a project plan for breeding and schedule a meeting with team leader Lone Dahl Thomsen at lone.d.thomsen@biomed.au.dk to ensure that all procedures, licenses and formalities are in place and that we can allocate the necessary space and staff to the strain before initiating import or breeding. You can find an example of a correctly filled out breeding project plan to the right.