Critical uncertainties in preclinical research: Navigating trust, technology, and ethics

Animal use in preclinical research is facing growing scientific, ethical and political scrutiny in Europe. Researchers are increasingly required to justify in vivo studies and are urged to replace them with New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), even where these are not yet fit for purpose. In response to this pressure, members of the COST Action CA20135 “Improving biomedical research by automated behaviour monitoring in the animal home-cage” (TEATIME) held a Strategic Foresight Workshop in March 2025 to examine the future of animal research in Europe. The resulting scenarios reveal risks of over-regulation, outsourcing animal experiments to countries with weaker standards, and erosion of research quality, but also highlight opportunities to combine validated NAMs with high-quality in vivo work under robust ethical oversight. This short communication summarises the workshop's main insights and argues for evidence-based, transparent and internationally aligned regulation that protects both animal welfare and the scientific value of preclinical research.