Animal Ethics Committee (DEC) | Central Authority for Scientific Procedures on Animals

Animal Ethics Committees (DECs) are independent advisory bodies that play a key role in the evaluation of project licence applications. They evaluate whether the benefits of a proposed project outweigh the discomfort experienced by animals. The DEC formulates a central ethical question and provides an answer to it. This advice is a key part of our decision-making process.

What does a DEC do?

One of the DECs’ main responsibilities is the ethical evaluation of a project licence application. This involves evaluating whether the benefits of a project outweigh the animals’ discomfort. The DEC provides a positive or negative advice. As part of its review, a DEC also considers the following questions:

Are there alternatives without the use of experimental animals to achieve the project objectives?
Does the project involve as few laboratory animals as possible?
Is sufficient attention paid to the refinement of animal procedures? Animals should experience as little pain or discomfort as possible. This can include methods such as appropriate housing, anaesthesia or pain management.

DEC advice on a project licence application

This is the procedure we follow when we consult the DEC on a project licence application:

Request for advice
We forward the application documents to the DEC, which sends us its advice within 20 working days. If the DEC cannot issue an advice within this time frame, it will inform us of the delay.
Advice
The DEC may have questions for the applicant before it can complete its evaluation. The processing period is paused until the answers are received. Once the evaluation is complete, the DEC sends us its advice, together with the latest version of the application. If the DEC determines that it does not have enough information to complete an ethical review, the application is considered to be ‘non-reviewable’.
CCD decision
We have 20 working days to assess the project licence application, taking the DEC’s advice into account. If anything is unclear, we may ask the applicant for more information. We keep the DEC informed about the questions we ask, and sometimes we also have additional questions for the DEC. We discuss all the answers and come to a decision on the application.
Notification
We notify both the applicant and the DEC of our decision.

DEC advice on a non-reviewable application

This is the DEC’s role in a non-reviewable application.

Procedure on a non-reviewable application

Procedure for non-reviewable applications

The application is non-reviewable
The DEC informs us that the application is non-reviewable and provides its rationale for coming to this conclusion.
The applicant amends the application
• We ask the applicant to amend the application and we provide the applicant with the DEC’s rationale. We pause the processing period until we receive the amended application.
• The applicant sends us the amended application within six weeks.
• The total processing period is extended by 15 working days.
The DEC issues a new advice
This is the same process as for a new application. If the DEC still determines that the application is non-reviewable, we will consider this a negative advice.
We evaluate the application
We evaluate the application and come to a decision.

Collaboration between the CCD and DECs

One of our tasks is to oversee the DECs. We accredit new DECs. In addition, any change to the composition of a DEC must be approved by us. We also oversee:

the level of expertise;
independence;
use of external advisors for animal welfare and care,

Together with the DEC, we assess new members for the DEC using a special expertise framework. For each research area, this framework sets out the criteria for new members regarding their qualifications and professional experience. You can find more information about DECs on the Netherlands Association for Animal Ethics Committees (NVDEC) website (website in Dutch).

Composition of DECs

Each DEC has at least six members and a chair. The chair and at least half of the members must not be employed by any establishment for which the DEC provides advice. An establishment is, for example, a university that conducts animal procedures. This rule guarantees the committee’s independence and impartiality. The DEC’s members include experts in the following fields:

experimental design (methodology) and statistics
veterinary care and/or the care of experimental animals
housing and care of experimental animals
ethics