For projects involving severe discomfort or non-human primates, you must meet special conditions. This requirement is laid down in the Animal Experiments Act (Wet op de dierproeven (Wod)) and is known as ‘retrospective assessment’.
When is a retrospective assessment required?
When granting and issuing a licence, we apply retrospective assessment to projects that involve:
- severe discomfort in all or some of the animals used in the research;
- research that involves non-human primates.
If your project is subject to retrospective assessment, you must submit the retrospective assessment no later than one year after your project licence expires.
What should be included in the retrospective assessment?
You should include the following information in the retrospective assessment:
- whether the project’s objectives have been achieved;
- the level of discomfort experienced by the animals;
- how many laboratory animals were used;
- which species of laboratory animals were used;
- the severity of the procedures;
- which outcomes may contribute to further implementing the required Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (3Rs).
Submitting the retrospective assessment
You submit your retrospective assessment to us using our online form in Mijn RVO (website in Dutch). If you have any questions about how to complete the online documents or about the retrospective assessment itself? Please contact us. We will be happy to help.
Procedure for retrospective assessment
This is the procedure for a retrospective assessment.