The Stroke Association awards research funding totalling £2-3 million each year (you can find exact figures in our annual reports). Most of this research involves human participants. A small part of our funding, however, goes to research where there is no alternative but to involve non-human animals. 

Our research mission 

Every day in the UK, more than 240 people have a stroke, and that number is going up.  

Some lose their speech. Some lose their independence. Many lose their lives. 

Research is vital if we are to effectively prevent, treat and support recovery from stroke. 

Why is animal research necessary? 

In the UK, research involving non-human animals is governed by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986, which makes it clear that it is illegal to use animals in research if there is an alternative way to find out the same information. However, there are some questions that cannot be answered except with animal research, such as those relating to the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and medical procedures. 

For example, a drug may look safe and effective when it’s tested on blood cells in a test tube, but turn out to be deadly to another type of cell, or to stop working when it encounters a specific hormone. We therefore need to understand what effects it has on the whole body, and we cannot know this without testing it in a real animal. 

How has animal research helped stroke patients and stroke survivors? 

Huge progress has been made in preventing and treating stroke in recent years. This would not have been possible without research involving animals. In fact, because UK law requires that all new drugs are tested in at least two other species before they are tested in humans, these treatments would not be available without animal research. 

Here are just some of the breakthroughs that have relied on animal research: 

  • Blood pressure-lowering medications, like ACE inhibitors1 
  • Cholesterol-lowering medications, like statins2 
  • Thrombectomy (surgical removal of a blood clot)3 
  • Clot-busting thrombolysis drugs, like alteplase4 

Requirements for animal research we fund 

The Stroke Association is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities and we support its position statement on the use of animals in research. We will only fund medical research involving animals where it is absolutely necessary to improve stroke prevention, treatment and care, and where there is no alternative. 

For research we fund, there are three checkpoints at which the researcher must justify the use of animals in their research.  

  1. Applying for a license to carry out animal research from the UK government’s Animals in Science Regulation Unit 
  1. Applying to the Stroke Association for funding 
  1. Applying to their organisation for ethical approval 

Each of these checks is made by a different group of people.  

We do not release funds to a researcher doing animal research without evidence that all of these checks have been passed. 

Actions we’re taking to decrease use of animals in research 

As a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities, we are committed to the 3 Rs of animal research: 

  • Replacement: finding alternatives to animal research wherever possible 
  • Reduction: where animal research is necessary, using as few animals as possible 
  • Refinement: where animal research is necessary, finding ways to improve welfare and minimise suffering 

You can read more about the 3 Rs on the NC3Rs website. 

We are making an active effort to decrease the use of animals in stroke research beyond the 3 Rs. We are proud to have funded researchers who aim to reduce our need for animal studies – for example, by providing training to help researchers working with animals do more thorough quality-checking of their research. 

What animals are used in the research projects we fund? 

You can find information about how many of our current research projects involve animals and which species these are at our research statistics page below.

View statistics on current research projects
  1. For example: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.CIR.97.14.1411  
  2. For example: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.STR.0000048213.18751.52 
  3. For example: https://www.ajnr.org/content/31/5/972.short 
  4. For example (note alteplase is a type of recombinant t-PA): https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/ATVBAHA.108.179655