WAI joins the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Animals Involved in Research
In June 2025, Wild Animal Initiative became a formal member of the Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Animals Involved in Research, housed within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Board on Animal Health Sciences, Conservation, and Research (BAHSCR). This partnership marks an important step in our mission to advance wild animal welfare science—and signals growing recognition of this emerging field within mainstream scientific institutions.
Why this partnership?
BAHSCR was formed in 2022 when the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) expanded its scope to explicitly include wildlife, non-model species, and biodiversity. As part of this shift, the Board began seeking expertise from wildlife scientists, ethicists, and animal advocacy organizations.
Our core mission at Wild Animal Initiative focuses on the welfare of animals living in the wild — a broader remit than animals involved in research. But there are natural synergies. As we work to advance wild animal welfare science, we want to ensure that researchers entering the field follow best practices. This is harder than it sounds: Ethical procedures were developed primarily for laboratory animals, and there are significant barriers to ethical wildlife research, including insufficient knowledge of wild animals' species-specific needs and responses to different procedures.
By joining the Roundtable, we can contribute our expertise to BAHSCR's goals while staying informed about developments relevant to our field.
What we bring to the table
Membership in a National Academies body offers credibility at a time when many people don't know wild animal welfare science exists. We see this partnership as an opportunity to keep insights flowing between institutions focused on animal welfare in research contexts and the emerging field dedicated to understanding welfare in the wild.
The Roundtable is currently deciding on its activities for the coming year. As members, we have the opportunity to propose initiatives that could improve wild animal welfare in wildlife studies. So far, we have already submitted suggestions related to insect sentience, building the evidence base for different ethical oversight practices, and translating research on ethical review in wildlife contexts into actual practice. We hope at least one workshop or consensus paper will result from these proposals this year.
Without Wild Animal Initiative at the table, these topics might be overlooked — most other suggestions focus on building public confidence in laboratory animal research. That's precisely why the organizers invited us to participate.
How this fits our strategy
Institutional support is essential for wild animal welfare science to gain lasting momentum. While our primary focus isn't on animals involved in experimentation but rather the far larger numbers living in the wild, ethical refinement in wildlife research matters — and could serve as an important bridge connecting those who study wildlife with those who study welfare.
The fact that we were invited signals increasing awareness of wild animal welfare and acknowledgment that this science has been neglected and needs investment.
We're excited about the opportunities this partnership creates — not only for advancing ethical practices in wildlife research, but for bringing wild animal welfare into conversations at the highest levels of scientific governance.
Our representatives
Mal Graham (WAI Strategy Director) serves as our primary representative on the Roundtable. Mal completed their PhD in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech, studying the biomechanics of arboreal gap crossing in jumping and gliding snakes. Their experience conducting research on wild snakes — both in the field and in captivity — combined with extensive participation in ethics review as a researcher, prompted them to think deeply about how we can better serve wildlife scientists and the animals involved in their studies.
Bob Fischer (WAI Ethics Review Panel member) serves as our alternate representative. Bob is a Professor of Philosophy at Texas State University, a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities, and Director of the Animal Welfare Economics Working Group. His books include Animal Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction, The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics, Wildlife Ethics: The Ethics of Wildlife Management and Conservation, and Weighing Animal Welfare. Bob brings extensive experience as an IACUC committee member and has written widely on empirically informed approaches to animal ethics—including work on insect sentience and interspecies welfare comparisons.
