The Directorate General–Joint Research Centre (DG-JRC) of the European Commission (EC) is mandated "to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU [European Union] policies." To this end, the JRC functions in an advisory capacity to policymaking directorates general, such as Enterprise, Environment and Health & Consumer Protection, while serving also as the hub for intramural research at the EU level. The priorities and budget for the JRC and its sister division, DG-Research, reflect the themes defined in the EU's multi-annual Research Framework Programmes. Among the JRC's seven institutes, most work related to regulatory toxicology is carried out by the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection and the following two divisions in particular:
ECVAM
ECVAM was established in 1991 pursuant to a requirement in Directive 86/609/EEC that the EC and its member states actively support the development, validation, and acceptance of methods to replace, reduce, or refine the use of animals in laboratories. The specific duties of ECVAM are "to:
- Coordinate the validation of alternative test methods at the EU level
- Act as a focal point for the exchange of information on the development of alternative test methods
- Set up, maintain and manage a database on alternative procedures
- Promote dialogue between legislators, industries, biomedical scientists, consumer organizations, and animal welfare groups, with a view to the development, validation, and international recognition of alternative test methods." To this end, ECVAM has organized more than 60 scientific workshops and task forces.
In addition to these core activities, ECVAM has taken on a lead role in:
- Developing internationally recognized validation criteria of new and revised test methods
- Sponsoring independent scientific peer reviews of alternative methods/strategies and publishing statements of validity issued by the ECVAM Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) to encourage regulatory acceptance and use of appropriate 3Rs methods
- Establishing the European Reference Laboratory for Alternative Tests (CORRELATE) and advancing, as a project manager and/or lead laboratory, several multi-year, multi-million-Euro integrated research projects aimed at moving away from animal testing for such complex endpoints as acute toxicity, skin sensitization, and reproductive toxicity
- Coordinating international validation studies, including collaborative efforts in partnership with the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) in the United States, the Japanese Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (JaCVAM) in Japan, and the international Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
- Supporting the development of integrated testing strategies, including serving as the EC lead for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Guidance on Information Requirements and Chemical Safety Assessment
- Encouraging EU regulatory acceptance of new test methods determined to be scientifically valid
Other AltTox pages with information on ECVAM:
European Chemicals Bureau
The European Chemicals Bureau (ECB) is mandated to provide technical support for a variety of regulatory programs managed by DG-Environment, including:
The ECB also serves as the lead EC service for coordinating the regulatory acceptance of new and revised testing methods, including the development of test guidelines, both at the EU level and through the OECD. However, passage of the REACH regulation in December 2006 initiated a process whereby the ECB and its scientific support functions will be subsumed into the new European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
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