{"entity":{"id":"idea-tr2-arrive-audit","kind":"idea","name":"Audit animal studies for randomisation and blinding, published by institution","aka":[],"tldr":"Most mouse studies of cancer drugs do not randomise animals or blind the people measuring tumours, which inflates results. Checking and publishing which institutions do it properly would change behaviour.","summary":"The ARRIVE guidelines set minimum reporting standards for animal research, but compliance remains low and unenforced. Systematic reviews show that unblinded, unrandomised animal studies overestimate effects. Funders could commission annual audits of a random sample of animal studies they supported, scoring randomisation, blinding, sample-size justification and reporting, and publish scores by institution.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"ARRIVE guidelines","url":"https://arriveguidelines.org/"}],"tags":[],"related":["idea-tr2-animal-power-mandate","idea-tr2-multilab-preclinical"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["pdx-models"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-reproducibility","b-preclinical-models"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Institutions whose scores are published will improve compliance with randomisation and blinding to above 80% within three years, from the 20 to 40% typically found in audits.","rationale":"Public institutional scores worked for clinical trial transparency; animal research has the same structure of diffuse responsibility that public reporting fixes.","test":"Audit 500 funded animal studies across 20 institutions; publish; re-audit after two years.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"philanthropy","cost":"small","horizonYears":2},"route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-arrive-audit/","neighbours":{"idea":[{"id":"idea-tr2-multilab-preclinical","kind":"idea","name":"Multi-laboratory preclinical trials as the standard for go/no-go decisions","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-multilab-preclinical/"},{"id":"idea-tr2-animal-power-mandate","kind":"idea","name":"Pre-specified sample sizes for animal studies; no more 'representative' experiments","route":"/ideas/idea-tr2-animal-power-mandate/"}],"technology":[{"id":"pdx-models","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived xenografts","route":"/technologies/pdx-models/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-preclinical-models","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Lab models that fail to predict what happens in patients","route":"/bottlenecks/b-preclinical-models/"},{"id":"b-reproducibility","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Preclinical results do not reproduce","route":"/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/"}]}}