Engagement Activities

The Animal Research Nexus team at the University of Exeter have developed a range of resources to help understand and support involvement with research for when conversations include animal research. By research involvement, we are referring to actitivies where members of the public are actively involved in research projects or organisations. This might include involvement in identifying research priorities for organisations, or as joint grant holders or co-applicants on a research project.

We worked with people involved in research, research scientists, and involvement and engagement professionals to understand the challenges of animal research for involvement. The challenges include the topic of animal research, involvement with 'upstream' laboratory research, and the complexities of translational research.

We published an Interim Report to share findings from our qualitative research with research participants in early 2019. We presented and published our work for different audiences and in academic articles, which you can explore on our project webpage. In 2022, we published a report covering practical next steps for Informing research involvement around animal research, which seeks to show how research involvement can be supported and situated alongside ethical review. We have also devised a training workshop for researchers considering using involvement or engagement in their work, which was part of Beth Greenhough's work on Care-full stories.

The Mouse Exchange is a public engagement activity that invites small groups of members of the public to “make a mouse” with researchers, using felt, wool and other craft materials. Throughout the 20 or so minutes we spend together participants can explore the origins of laboratory mice through conversation and interaction with objects.

It is a curiosity-driven activity that creates a space for participants to relate to laboratory mice differently. Across a number of events, it has inspired excitement and intrigue, as well as intimate and reflective conversations on the subject of animal research.

You can read more about the development of the Mouse Exchange here or follow the link below to access the Mouse Exchange website and toolkit.

Care-full Stories is an adaptable training toolkit for those working in the animal research sector. It uses fictionalized prompts as a resource for staging small group discussions around institutional cultures of care.

Workshops usually last between 2 and 3 hours, and seek to create a safe space for sharing experiences between those working in different roles in animal research. Participants welcome the chance to share their experience, to see their world from another’s perspective, and to recognize the importance of good communication in generating a supportive workplace culture.

You can read more about the development of care-full stories here or follow the link below to access the full set of training materials, including guidance for facilitators, suggested workshop introductions, and the different care-full stories scripts.

Vector is an immersive theatre experience that tasks participants with ethically reviewing the use of animal models in vaccine development. Participants are welcomed into the world of Biocore, the ethical pharmaceutical company, who are keen to involve the public across their research pathways. Teams compete against each other to deliver the most ethical research proposal possible. 

Vector uses elements of performance, gameplay and integrated technology to allow participants to make decisions and react to their consequences, in an expanding narrative that spans across different aspects of the animal research nexus.

This work was developed with our creative partners The Lab Collective. Vector premiered in 2019 and shortlised for the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year 2021 in the category 'Science Engagement'.

You can read more about the development of Vector here or follow the link below to access the website

Find out how you really feel about fish! The psychic fish is an interactive encounter that invites people to think about fish and their use in research. Playing on the classic Fortune Teller Fish game we’re all familiar with from Christmas crackers, Psychic Fish reveals to participants their “true” feelings about fish. We’ve developed an online version of the game, which features a series of questions prompting people to reflect on what the Psychic Fish made them think about. 

You can read more about the development of Psychic Fish here or follow the link below to access the website.

This engagement activity invites people to draw a label which could be used to denote the role of animal research in the production of medicines. Our aim was to use the hypothetical idea of labelling in order to open up questions about animal research, and about potential futures.

The activity provokes challenging questions such as: What could an animal research label look like? If such a label were rolled out, what would be the societal consequences? And how can collaboration with artists encourage new and fruitful discussions about animal research?

You can read more about the development of this activity here or follow the link below to access some images and reflections on the issues around labelling animal research.

Are research animals an invisible workforce within a city? Making a murine workforce from the same red clay that built Manchester as an industrial city, we were able to ask, what does it mean to be part of a community; to be shaped out of and work for it? How do we define who or what works for us and what work do we allow to be visible choose to keep discreet? How do our levels of comfort and understanding of particular work and workers shape how we value and acknowledge contributions to our environment and our lives?

This work was develop in partnership with our creative partner Rob Hopper. You can explore more about The Work through the Gallery Guide that accompanied its exhibition in Manchester Museum as part of the Manchester Science Festival in 2019.