Tackling the replication crisis in neuroscience

The European Quality in Preclinical Data (EQIPD) consortium has announced the official finalization of the EQIPD Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) project.

Over the course of four years the consortium has developed a state-of-the-art, lean and fit-for-purpose quality system to facilitate adherence to rigorous, evidence-based research practices in academic and industrial non-regulated non-clinical research.

To make the quality system widely available, the consortium has launched an online educational platform providing education and training in the principles and application of quality and rigor, and published recommendations for the internal validity in the design, conduct and analysis of biomedical experiments involving laboratory animals.

Professor Malcolm Macleod of the University of Edinburgh, co-ordinator of the EQIPD consortium, said: “The EQIPD partners worked very efficiently as a cohesive unit, even when challenged by unforeseen circumstances, such as the COVID pandemic. Via access to non-clinical data from industry we have been able to explore those variables in study design and data analysis that influence outcomes in preclinical neuroscience and safety studies conducted in industry, and to establish whether these are the same variables that influence outcomes in academic studies. The outcomes from this analysis and the recommendations of internal validity informed a series of animal experiments conducted by the consortium, and we were able to demonstrate the benefits of harmonization across labs.”

To sustain the efforts of the consortium, EQIPD is in the process of founding the Guarantors of EQIPD society. Dr. Thomas Steckler of Janssen Pharmaceutica, project leader of the EQIPD consortium, added: “The Guarantors of EQIPD consist of a group of the EQIPD project team members and will be responsible for the overall guidance and administration of academic and educational programs, and the dissemination of the EQIPD vision. The guarantors will oversee the deployment of the EQIPD Quality System, working with by an independent globally acting partner organization to provide the operational support and services required for day-to-day business management during the implementation and maintenance of the EQIPD Quality System at interested research units.”

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