Reacción a "Spanish centres make progress in transparency in animal experimentation, according to COSCE report"

This is already the seventh report of the COSCE Agreement, which lists transparency activities carried out in 2023 by the adhering institutions. And I would highlight:

1. That transparency and communication, fundamental pillars of the Agreement, have been consolidated in Spain and that our country is one of the most advanced in the world in being transparent about the activities it carries out with experimental animals, a fact that is serving as a mirror in which to look at several other countries, including the United States, which has recently begun to implement this transparency process.
2. The high degree of commitment and participation of the member institutions: of the 168 institutions that have signed the Agreement, 95% of them have responded to this seventh survey, fulfilling the fourth commitment of the Agreement, which refers to reporting annually precisely to be able to evaluate their commitment and prepare this report.
3. That, as was its objective, the Agreement has encouraged many institutions to implement transparency activities on a routine basis and to include informative material on their websites. In fact, the report by EARA, the entity in charge of preparing it, highlights that Spain is the country with the highest percentage of institutional declarations on websites, which reflects the direct impact of the Agreement.

As I said, the report was drawn up by staff from EARA (European Animal Research Association), which is independent of both the Spanish institutions that signed the Transparency Agreement and COSCE itself. This was a requirement that was specifically spelled out in the Agreement document and is very important to emphasise. The Agreement required a great deal of willingness on the part of the signatory parties to succeed and we felt that this should be evaluated annually. We established in that agreement that this should be done by EARA and it is clear that they have acted professionally by collecting the necessary information and indexing it as proof of total transparency. In my opinion, EARA is to be congratulated for this report which, as in previous years, faithfully reflects the activity of the vast majority of the institutions subscribing to the Agreement, and I would also like to thank them for their commitment to transparency by providing most of the information requested.

[In terms of limitations] The document is written in great detail and with reference to activities and initiatives implemented around the four points mandated by the Agreement, which are useful for framing this report in a general frame of reference. If anything, it should be mentioned that, albeit in a minority, some of the signatory entities have not been able to submit sufficient data due to lack of dedicated staff or time. This should be remedied in the future and it would be desirable that 100 % of the institutions involved are able to submit their data.