Elisabet Berggren is Deputy Head of Unit at Systems Toxicology, Joint Research Centre (JRC). She is a member of the Commission interservice group on the roadmap to phase out animal testing for chemical safety assessments, and she co-chairs the Change Management Working Group. Elisabet started to work for the European Commission in 1996 at the European Chemicals Bureau, and in 2009, she changed to her current unit, which is also hosting the European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (ECVAM). Elisabet has a PhD in physical chemistry from Stockholm University and worked with related research at the University of Bologna and at Lund University.
EC roadmap towards phasing out of animal testing in chemical safety assessment & change management
The EU roadmap preparation started back in 2023 and has been characterised by a large stakeholder engagement. The final communication on the roadmap will be presented by the European Commission in the first quarter of 2026. This presentation will provide an overview of learnings from the work up to date, and the current planning how to proceed in the implementation phase. The EU policy is already supporting the phasing out of animal testing, so this is much about how to focus efforts, understand what need to be changed to achieve the final goal and how get all stakeholders to buy in, based on their own interests.