NSW Health & Medical Research | Non-Animal Technologies Network (NAT-Net)

The NSW Government has allocated $4.5 million for a targeted competitive research grant program to help reduce and replace animals in medical research. These funds are being used to establish a statewide Non-Animal Technologies Network (NAT-Net) to increase coordination, address regulatory barriers and build a more cohesive and stronger sector in NSW.

To ensure NAT-Net best serves those working in the non-animal technologies space, we invite you to join the network and share your views. Register your interest today!

NAT-Net aims to make groundbreaking discoveries in the field of medicine and health while developing and promoting alternative methods of research that reduce the need to use animals in research.

NAT-Net will bring together national and international communities and capabilities to accelerate discovery science in key areas of clinical need and facilitate the development of new drugs and advanced therapy and medicinal products including computer simulations, synthetic biology and cell-free models.

The network operates under pillars which encompass research, infrastructure and regulations around non-animal technologies. The initial focus of the network maps the Australian landscape to understand our capabilities in the area. We are developing innovative research and have started discussions to navigate regulatory pathways to support the community and grow our strengths. Infrastructure and partnership are crucial, including industry connections to drive the sector and increase in national curriculum education in the area.

Our overall aim is to act as an umbrella network to coordinate state and national capacity across a diverse range of new non-animal technologies.

Facilitate collaboration to overcome fragmentation and build a more cohesive and stronger non-animal technologies sector.

Accelerate the development and use of innovative, effective and sustainable non-animal models in research.

Provide networking opportunities to its members.

Promote dialogue between the various stakeholders including academic, industry, regulatory and government sectors to identify the challenges and opportunities for the wider acceptance and uptake of alternative models and non-animal technologies.

Infrastructure pillar 

This will build statewide assets to support non-animal technology capabilities. This may include improving data standards, biobanking and tissue collection, improve the integration of outputs into a coordinated pipeline for non-animal models, and updated biomedical R&D infrastructure to support non-animal model capabilities.

Research pillar

Four foundational research projects will leverage existing expertise to facilitate and encourage collaboration across the sector, accelerating the development and use of innovative, effective, and sustainable non-animal models in research.

NAT-Net’s competitive research grants will open soon. Stay tuned for more details.

Regulatory pillar

A non-animal models regulatory working group will be formed in partnership with the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Office of the Gene Technology Regulator and other relevant regulatory agencies. This will address the important need to develop a national regulatory framework for the increased use of human cell models within the regulatory approvals for therapeutic and medical devices and how they can reduce animal use.

NATs are novel approaches technologies embracing numerous scientific methodologies aimed to accurately model human biology, including:

laboratory developed and engineered in vitro cellular models such as organoids and organs on a chip;

computational models utilising in silico development of machine learning and artificial intelligence; and

in chemico methods such as biochemical assays to assess potency.

NATs development and integration into research frameworks should enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of drugs and new therapeutic products across various regulatory contexts.

Depending on where you are, NATs can have slight variations of nomenclature. In Europe they are referred to as NAMs (“non-animal methods”), while in the USA a NAM is a “new approach methodology”.