Increased focus on non-animal models for COVID-19 and non-COVID lung research

Horizon Europe is a major stakeholder in the immediate future of lung research. As such, we believe it is worthwhile drawing the attention of the European Respiratory Journal readership to the recent publication by Hynes et al. on Advanced Non-animal Models in Biomedical Research: Respiratory Tract Diseases. This report from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre EU Reference Laboratory (EURL ECVAM), and its accompanying dataset, identifies well-established current and emerging in vitro, in silico and ex vivo non-animal models for respiratory disease modelling, and reinforces the concept of “reduce, refine, or replace” animals used for scientific purposes. The 3R approach is not only embraced by the European Commission, but also the respiratory research community, as evidenced by many European Respiratory Society publications as well as frequent ERS Congress sessions and research seminars on the topic.