In this magazine

How can we research how animals respond to viruses? And how do we learn more about their digestive systems without having to perform invasive animal tests? How do we find out which fish inhabit a particular area without having to catch them? And how can we predict where seabirds will forage their food as the number of wind farms at sea increases?

The Animal Sciences Group (ASG) of Wageningen University & Research has been focusing on animal research for decades, including subjects like animal behaviour, food production, disease and life underwater. We are the leading institute in this both nationally and internationally. We are constantly innovating, in part through developing new methods and techniques for animal research that centres around replacing, reducing or refining animal testing. This is the core theme of the stories in this magazine: about applying organoids as a technique (turning stem cells into animal tissues), about monitoring animal behaviour using cameras and sensors, and about analysing and cleverly combining data to make information usable for researchers, policymakers and decision makers. These methods and techniques can be applied within different fields of research, and can help shape the future of animal research.