Descroix-Vernier EthicScience (DVES) Award
Established in 2013 by the Pro Anima Scientific Committee and funded through the EthicScience Action Fund and generous corporate sponsorship, the EthicScience Prize was awarded every two years to scientific programs that did not involve the use of animals and demonstrated leading-edge advances in both innovation and ethics. In 2022, for its fifth edition, the EthicScience Prize became the Descroix-Vernier EthicScience Prize.
The Descroix-Vernier Foundation, which has supported numerous humanitarian, environmental, and animal causes for decades and is dedicated to saving as many lives as possible, considers the challenges of non-animal research to be crucial.
This award recognizes three scientific programs: the first two categories, “Innovation” and “Development and Applicability,” contribute to the advancement of non-animal research in its various aspects, and each comes with a prize of 50,000 euros. In addition to these two awards, there is the “Jury Prize,” worth 10,000 euros. This prize aims to encourage promising research and/or a research team in recognition of the exceptional quality of their work.
All of the award-winning projects can be viewed on the ProAnima website
2025 Winners and Press Release
“Innovation” Category 2025: Dr. Benoit Maisonneuve and Dr. Thibault Honegger, Netri startup – “Neuron as a Sensor” project—organs-on-a-chip combined with AI, using neurons as sensors in research on Alzheimer’s disease and neuropathic pain
“Development and Applicability” Category 2025: Prof. Halimi Alem-Marchand and Dr. Lina Bezdetnaya—Jean Lamour Institute, University of Lorraine, CNRS—project “PDAC on a chip”—Microfluidic model and 3D printing for the study of pancreatic cancer
2025 Jury Prize: Dr. Vincent Dani and Dr. Luigi Formicola, ExAdEx-Innov startup—”OBFAT-3D” project—development of 3D in vitro models of human adipose tissue for obesity research
2023 Winners and Press Release
Innovation” category: Dr Agathe FIGAROL – FEMTO ST – Université de Franche-Comté, for project: 3D Glimpse – Tumor on a chip to fight glioblastoma
Development and applicability” category: Dr Julien MARIE and Sophie LEON – Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, for project: Innovative development and application of an alternative method to animals in cancer research.
Jury Prize: Nicolas AZNAR – Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Lyon, for project: NEXPOCAN – Next generation patient derived organic for enhanced physiology and cancer modeling
The programs rewarded in 2020 were :
Development of the LUCS VALITOX cellular toxicology program by Dr. Christophe Furger — development of an alternative method that does not involve animal testing in the regulatory field of acute oral toxicity in humans. In partnership with Poietis and AOP
Alfred Kastler Biology Prize, LFDA
The LFDA Alfred Kastler Biology Prize was founded in 1984 in memory of Professor Alfred Kastler, Nobel Prize winner, member of the Institute, co-founder of the LFDA and its President from 1979 to 1984. The €4,000 prize is intended to encourage research and the application of methods that avoid the traumatic experimental use of animals.
2025 Award Winner: Louis-Bastien Weiswald, a researcher at Inserm, for his work on tumoroids—the cultivation of tumors in the laboratory using patients’ cells (see the project presentation)
2023 Award Winner: Alexandra Benchoua, research director at the Center for Stem Cell Studies at the Institute for Stem Cells for the Treatment and Study of Monogenic Diseases (I-STEM), for developing an experimental method that eliminates the need for animal testing, as part of research into new treatments for neurological disorders (autism, myopathies, etc.) or psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.
In 2021, it was awarded to Vasiliki Kalatzis, a research director at Inserm’s Institute of Neurosciences in Montpellier, for her work on blindness without the use of animal testing.
In 2017, the prize was awarded to Mohammed Moudjou, Vincent Béringue and Jérôme Chapuis, researchers in virology and molecular immunology at INRA, for developing an alternative method to the animal model for diagnosing prion diseases in humans and animals.
EPAA (European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing)
Everytwo years since 2014, EPAA has awarded a “3R Scientific Prize” (10,000 euros) to promote European research into alternative approaches to animal experimentation.
The 2026 call for projects is now open and runs through September 1, 2026
2024: Jakub Tomek, University of Oxford, for project: “Computational model of human ventricular cardiomyocytes for arrhythmia research and drug safety assessment”.
2022 : Amer Jamalpoor, Toxys, for project: “ReproTracker: an animal-free platform for developmental toxicity testing”.
2020 : Viviana Meraviglia, Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, for her work on “Multicellular 3D cardiac microtissues derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs): a new platform for studying heart disease, cardiotoxicity and drug efficacy in humans in vitro”.
3R Award presented by FC3R
Each year, the FC3R presents two 3R awards: a “Research” award and a “Culture of Care” award.
The deadline for the 3R “Research” project call is October 5, 2026
The 2025 3R Research Prize was awarded to Clémence Deligne of the Lyon Cancer Research Center for her publication on the development of a biobank of patient-derived organoids for the study and treatment of pediatric brain cancers
