Animal research authorities

Authorities are issued by either an accredited research establishment or by the Director-General of NSW Department of Primary Industries (in the case of independent researchers supervised by the Director-General’s Animal Care and Ethics Committee (DG’s ACEC)).

Investigators are ultimately responsible for the care, management and well-being of their research animals.

The Animal Research Act 1985 requires that every person undertaking animal research must be the holder of an Animal Research Authority. It is an offence under the Act to carry out research without such an authority.

Animal Research Authorities are issued for specific projects at the time of project approval by a Animal Ethics Committee. See Form C - Animal Research Authority (19 kb, PDF) or for the Director-General's Animal Care and Ethics Committee Animal Research Authority Application.

The authorities can only be issued for a 12 month period, and will need to be renewed annually during the life of any approved project that runs for more than 12 months.

The authorities can only be issued by the establishment on the recommendation of its Animal Ethics Committee. In practice, authorities are the same as the AEC approval for a particular protocol.

Independent investigators who are not associated with an accredited research establishment must also apply for an animal research authority for each research project they undertake.