In 2012, ECIMAT obtained authorization as a User Center for Experimental Animals, thus satisfying one of the main legal needs of marine researchers at our University. Since September 2014, ECIMAT has been working to expand the services related to animal experimentation at the center. As a result of this work, on July 7, 2015, the Xunta de Galicia resolved to extend ECIMAT’s Authorization regarding animal experimentation to include laboratories that carry out research with aquatic animals on the Lagoas-Marcosende Campus. In this way, the laboratories of the research groups in Fish Physiology, Behavioral Ecology and Lamprey Neurobiology, previously linked to ECIMAT, are definitively incorporated into ECIMAT’s Authorization as a User Center for Experimental Animals.
The expansion of the authorization is not limited to physical spaces, but also a significant expansion has been achieved in relation to the activities to be carried out at the Center. In addition to the use of experimental animals, already authorized in 2012, the new authorization allows ECIMAT to breed and supply experimental animals to researchers from the University of Vigo or any other public or private institution. These activities cover another historical need of our researchers since in many cases researchers need animals from the natural environment or raised in certain conditions (without vaccination for example), which is why animals from commercial fish farms were not suitable for these works.
This authorization represents another step towards fulfilling ECIMAT’s mission of providing a better service to its users every day and with the vision of turning the center into a European benchmark in infrastructures for marine research.
