Birgitte Kousholt (Board member since 2021)

Birgitte Kousholt is a licensed veterinarian and has a Ph.D. from Aarhus University. She has previously been employed at Aarhus University; first in a Post Doc position, then as a research animal veterinarian, and most recently as the head of the Department of Clinical Medicine for Large Animals. In 2018, she received the 3R-prize due to her work with implementing the 3R principles at Aarhus University (Department of Clinical Medicine).

Birgitte's vision for the 3R area is to actively work with promoting 3R research and education. We need to develop new methods to answer research questions that previously required research animals, and new methods that minimizes animal pain, stress, and suffering while providing animals the opportunity to perform natural behavior needs to be researched and taught. Additionally, research that reduces the number of required research animals needs to be promoted. Interdisciplinary collaboration is important in order to reach the goals of the 3Rs.

Birgitte can contribute with her experience as a researcher, veterinarian, and department head, and with the knowledge that she has of systematic reviews due to her work in the AUGUST-group (Aarhus University Group for Understanding Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses in Translational Preclinical Science) of which she is a founder.

Regarding her goals for Denmark's 3R-Center, she says: "We need to work with all aspects of the 3Rs. We need to develop alternatives to animal experiments, and we especially need to focus on how we can improve the living conditions of the animals that are used in experiments. We need to use existing knowledge and optimize experiment planning and reporting in order to reduce the number of animals being used in experiments."