April 2020

Animal Technicians throughout the UK are renowned for the care they afford to laboratory animals.
Animal Technicians invest a lot of emotion in providing the best care and are devoted to ensuring
that all the physical and psychological needs of their animals are met on a daily basis. The IAT is very
proud of the high standard of care and welfare that Animal Technicians invest into animals under
their care. As a result of the time spent with animals there is very often an emotional bond formed
between the animal and technician, and when this bond is broken it can have a detrimental effect
on the technician. A lot is invested into animal welfare but the welfare of the Animal Technicians
should not be overlooked.

13th August 2020

The 2020 AALAS National Meeting is going totally virtual – and for IAT members registration is FREE!

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The IAT is a Global Partner of AALAS, and as such, IAT members can register free of charge for the AALAS National Meeting.

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The conference information can be found at https://www.aalas.org/national-meeting

Register on-line and select “Global partner NM Registration Free” under the pricing.

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On the virtual platform, educational sessions will be pre-recorded and offered on-demand from the start of the meeting on 25th October through to the end of the year.

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The 2020 Preliminary Programme is now available online at https://issuu.com/aalasoffice/docs/2020_charlotte_preliminary_program_final

12th August 2020

A joint working group have produced a document designed to aid AWERB review of lessons learned from the Covid-19 experience.

Download a copy here

12th August 2020

The Andrew Blake Tribute Award is awarded annually, where sponsorship allows, to the animal technologist judged to have made the most significant contribution to improving standards in laboratory animal welfare over the previous twelve months.

The award is made to acknowledge the professional and personal commitment of animal technologists to improving standards in all aspects of laboratory animal care and welfare.

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The online entry form is available from the ABTA Page

10th August 2020

​A collaborative team consisting of the Technician Commitment, Science Council, Institute of Physics, Royal Society of Biology, Royal Society of Chemistry, Wellcome and the Research England funded Midlands Innovation TALENT programme undertook a national survey in order to understand the impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on the technical workforce in higher education and research. Over 1300 responses were collected from technicians across 99 universities and research institutes from all four nations of the UK.

29th July 2020

The IAT Equality and Diversity Group have released an Equality and Diversity Update.  To view and download a copy CLICK HERE.

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For move information on the IAT Equality and Diversity Group and useful resources CLICK HERE.

16th July 2020

Today (Thursday, 16 July 2020) the government has released its annual statistics on the number of animals used in scientific, medical and veterinary research in 2019. The figures show that 3,401,517 procedures were carried out in Great Britain in 2019, 3% fewer than in 2018, and the lowest number since 2007.

Nearly half of these procedures were carried out by ten organisations.

July 2020

This is a call for all you budding photographers that may have or are going to take some great industry related pictures... Here at the IAT Comms Group we are always in need of quality pictures to use in the IAT’s promotional campaigns.

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We are looking for photographs of research animals, with or without a member of staff. If a member of staff is included in the photo, the staff member must be wearing appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

Please ensure that you have permission from your employer to take and publish any pictures you intend to submit.

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The photos you supply will potentially be used in current and future promotional campaigns. . In order for us to be able to use them, the image requirements are:

- Orientation must be portrait

- A clear space around the picture would be a preference to enable cropping and trimming of all four edges

- File format needs to be .jpg

- Minimum file size of 2Mb but the larger the better

- Minimum picture resolution 300dpi (preferably 600dpi)

For the chance to have your pictures published, used in the IAT branding and promotional materials send your pictures to: sylvia.mehigan@ucd.ie

6th July 2020

Professionals from the UK’s laboratory animal community have produced advice to help staff working under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) with their plans for a return to a more normal level of work after the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown rules. This document has the support of  LASA, LAVA and IAT.  

April 2020

Since the 11th of March, when WHO declared Covid-19 had become a pandemic and government
advice led to a huge impact on businesses and personal lives. Businesses commenced lockdown
measures and implemented pandemic contingency plans. Animal Techs and others associated with
the industry were on the frontline continuing to provide excellent standards of care and welfare for
our animals used in scientific research.

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The IAT have produced a leaflet on Coping with change and a future of hope. Download your copy from the link above