Center for Contemporary Sciences, Inc

Goal 1: Create an ecosystem of better and diverse options for innovative human-specific research methods.
We will help spur further innovation by facilitating participation and communication across partners, including innovators, funders and end users. We will continue our workshops and establish conferences to increase knowledge sharing and collaboration. We will continue to expand our outreach to funders of biomedical research and establish CCS-directed funding programs (including challenge grants or prize competitions).

Goal 2: Create increased desire for and recognition of need for human-specific research methods.
Greater knowledge of human-specific methods is key to their greater adoption and use in place of animals. We will increase our programs around knowledge sharing, attracting new scientists to the field, and garnering media attention to achieve this.

Goal 3: Create changed behaviors and demonstrable urgency to replace animal testing with improved methods.
Building on Goal 2, we will “level the playing field’ by working with policy makers and regulators to increase funding for human-based methods, prioritize their use, and expedite and improve their validation process.

1: Establishing CCS as a thought leader in human-specific research methods.
We will be a one-stop shop for information and guidance, collating papers and articles, compiling stakeholder databases, and publishing our own work reviewing and analyzing the field, both in scientific journals and in the media. All this information will be on our website. We will build our scientific team of experts to achieve this, and to be points of contact for consultation and advice.


2. Advancing research, strategic partner participation, and knowledge sharing of human-based research methods.
We will develop and conduct workshops involving diverse partners to improve awareness and investigate how human-based methods can be used to their full potential to answer major research questions. We will produce roadmaps, and act on them, to achieve measurable progress.

3: Collaborating with medical charities and industries/corporations to increase funding of human-specific research methods.
We will establish dialogue with medical research charities and patient advocacy groups to highlight the benefits of shifting their research focus to human-specific methods, advise how this can be achieved, and to encourage them to act. We will also forge relationships and dialogue with governmental agencies and other funders to achieve the same goals.

4: Fostering the next generation of innovators and scientists in human-specific research methods.
We will work with academic institutions to ensure that students in the medical and life sciences are sufficiently educated about human-based research, and to encourage their participation in this field in their careers. We will implement targeted efforts to improve diversity of underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences and increase their leadership in developing human-specific research methods.

5: Creating an inspiring and financially strong workplace.
We will ensure we are as strong as possible to deliver and achieve our goals. We will build a knowledgeable, experienced, motivated, diverse, and happy team, and seek every opportunity to raise funds from many sources to strengthen our financial standing and implement the programs we envision.

CCS envisions its role in building collaboration with diverse partners to spur innovation across the biomedical research field. To attain this intermediate goal, CCS will continue its outreach programs with medical charities and corporations which fund biomedical research to prioritize funding of human-specific testing methods.

For successful development and widespread use of human-specific research methods, there needs to be greater recognition among biomedical scientists about how these methods are needed. CCS will catalyze this by increasing its programs around knowledge sharing, boosting media attention to these technologies, and generating new scientists developing and using these tools.

In 2022, CCS launched the Innovation Circle, a group of organizations, corporations, and academic institutions working together to advocate for alternatives to animal testing. We also hosted the first two in a series of Discover Forums during which thought leaders from multiple fields gather to determine strategy to create change that will improve human and public health.

In 2023, we are working to build partnerships with student groups from universities across the country. Students for Contemporary Sciences will help to educate their peers about the human health harms of animal testing and factory farming and the innovative solutions that already exist.

In 2022, we achieved a major win with the passing of the FDA Modernization Act into law. As scientific lead on the bill, CCS advocated for its passage through every stage of the legislative process and helped to ensure success. The new law, while only a first step toward the elimination of animal testing, is a major step in the right direction. It eliminates an outdated requirement that all new drugs must be tested on at least two species in order to receive FDA consideration and approval. With the removal of that requirement, drug developers will be able to demonstrate that human-based testing technologies like AI and organ-on-a-chip will not only lead to new and better medications and treatments--it will mean the beginning of a future of individualized precision medicine. This legislative victory is only the beginning for CCS, but it proves the power of the work we do.

In 2022, we have also announced the expansion of our mission to include seeking reforms in other industries at the intersection of human health and animal welfare. This will include addressing pandemic and climate threats directly related to factory farming and the legal wildlife trade.