Project overview

Our EUWelNet project responds to a recent call (SANCO 2012/10293) for a pilot project on the feasibility of a coordinated European animal welfare network. Our four main objectives are:

1. establish and coordinate a network of recognised technical, scientific and educational experts in the field;
2. identify some of the bottlenecks/ difficulties in implementing a few examples of EU legislation on animal welfare;
3. develop and test knowledge transfer strategies designed to overcome selected bottlenecks;
4. analyse the outcomes of EUWelNet and make recommendations on the feasibility and the likely conditions required for an effective European animal welfare network.

We chose to address Council Directives 2008/120/EC and 2007/43 for the protection of pigs and broiler chickens, respectively, and Council Regulation EC1099/2009 on protection at the time of killing. The reasons is that there are clear bottlenecks in their implementation, compliance is likely to improve welfare in a range of species in all Member States, and we believe we can develop good knowledge transfer solutions.

Our activities will be carried out in 4 partly parallel Work Packages (WPs).

• WP1 will establish a strong and experienced consortium, with an effective management structure.
• WP2 will identify bottlenecks and measures taken to address wider non-compliance, map the organization of implementation, define problem areas that may be addressed by knowledge transfer, and make inventories of measures and best practices, focusing on knowledge strategies.
• WP3 aims to develop and test four different strategies of knowledge transfer.
• WP4 involves virtually all partners in collating, analysing (achievability and cost/benefits) and reporting the outcomes of this pilot study.

Read more: Workpackages

Collectively, EUWelNet is expected to provide a clear model for the future establishment of a coordinated European animal welfare network. Although our work programme focuses on the specific objectives of the call we will also link to the wider scope of the possible functions of such a coordinated network. These include the provision of a focal information and advisory ‘centre’ for all stakeholders, access to technical expertise especially in the context of the use of outcome-based animal welfare indicators, the dissemination of research findings and technical innovations among EU stakeholders and the international scientific community, and the coordination of research.

More: Coordination team Contact 

The EUWelNet project is co-financed by the European Commission (agreement SANCO/2012/G3/EUWELNET/SI2.635078)