Every year, 9 million mice and rats are used for experiments in Europe alone, and as many as 71 million worldwide. Among other things, the discovery, development and safety of medicines is heavily dependent on these animal experiments. In this regard, it is very important that attention is paid to the welfare of the animals. Although systems already exist that can observe the movements of animals within a group, this is usually done manually and there is currently no system that can automatically analyse the stress levels of multiple animals. Studies have shown that an animal's emotional state can be measured by vocalisation, facial expression and body posture.
The project consortium will use AI analysis and acoustic sensor technology to measure facial expressions and vocalisation in order to assess the stress levels of individual animals in real time and thus be able to inform the animal keepers immediately. The aim is to make an important contribution to the welfare of rodents.
Noldus Information Technology B.V. is collaborating on the project with partners Radboud Universiteit, Heinrich Heine Universität, Radboudumc, CAE Software und Systems GmbH, and kubion GmbH. The project will run until May 2029 and has a total budget of €4,404,595.30. The project partners are contributing €1,783,592.37 of their own funds. As part of the Interreg Deutschland-Nederland programme, €2,621,002.93 is being co-financed by the EU, the Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, MB Niedersachsen, the Ministerie van Economische Zaken and the Provincie Gelderland.
https://deutschland-nederland.eu/en/projects/smartstressmonitor/
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