Tenth Annual Meeting of the AWRN
Date: 17/09/2026
Chester Zoo, Chester, England
“AWRN at 10: Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future”
Main Event – 17th & 18th September 2026
Early Career Afternoon – 16th September 2026
Meeting Theme and Contents
The theme of the meeting is “AWRN at 10: Learning from the Past, Shaping the Future”.
The main meeting runs from 9am on Thursday 17th September until 4.30pm on Friday 18th September. It will include some fantastic plenary talks including:
Mike Mendl, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare and the first AWRN Network Lead will reflect on changes in animal welfare over the last 10 years and consider what is next for the field.
Lisa Holmes, Lead Conservation Scientist in Behaviour & Welfare at Chester Zoo will talk about “From data to decisions: How science shapes zoo animal welfare”.
Rick D’Eath, Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at SRUC, will present on “Stasis or change in animal welfare policy: From Animal Machines to the Danish pig election”.
Kate Lewis, Postdoctoral Researcher at MRC Centre for Macaques will give the Early Career Plenary talk on “Captive animal ethograms: reflections on the past, strategies for the future”.
Robert Hyde, co-founder of Vet Vision AI will give the Impact Plenary on “Can We Monitor Welfare at Scale With AI Without Losing the Human in the Loop?”.
We had a record number of submissions to present at the Annual Meeting, so the meeting will also include an excellent selection of other talks, elevator pitches and breakout groups. There will also be speed networking and longer lunch breaks to facilitate networking and exploring the zoo (note entry is included in conference ticket).
Early Career Afternoon
On Wednesday 16th September the Early Career Committee have organised an afternoon of activities specifically aimed at Early Career Researchers. This will start at 12:15pm with an introduction to your EC Representatives and then lunch. After lunch there will be a panel discussion on “Alternative Career Paths”, where members of our Stakeholder Advisory Board will talk about how they use the skills they developed as researchers in their roles outside of academia. Following this there will be a session with Robert Hyde (Vet Vision AI) on using AI safely in your work, he will talk about the ways that AI can support you with your work. You will be able to explore the zoo on this day from 10am if you have an EC afternoon ticket!
Registration
Registration for the event is now open. Tickets can be purchased through the Queen’s University Belfast online shop:
A limited number of Early bird tickets are available until 31st July or until they sell out. Prices are as follows:
Early Bird Price |
Price |
|
Early Career Researcher Afternoon |
– |
£30 |
Standard Registration |
|
£160 |
Student Registration |
£90 |
£120 |
Tickets include lunches and refreshments on both days, access to the zoo both days and a drinks event on Thursday. Tickets for the Early Career Afternoon on 16th September are sold separately and include all day zoo access as well as lunch and refreshments.
Travel and Accommodation
Chester Zoo is located on the outskirts of the city of Chester at postcode CH2 1EU. We have compiled a guide to travel and accommodation which can be found here:
Accessibility
The venue is within the zoo itself and is about a 10 minute walk from the main entrance. Nearer, accessible parking may be available on request. Mobility scooters are bookable from Chester Zoo directly. Free zoo tickets can be provided to official carers of any delegates.
Please contact Poppy / Rebecca if you anticipate bringing a baby or child and/or partner to the event so we can ensure that we can put arrangements in place and share information with you in advance regarding what we can offer.
Accessible taxis and ability to request female drivers:
KingKabs Phone: 01244 343434
Email: info@kingkabs.co.uk
Presentations
Please use the AWRN Guide to Presentations when creating your presentation slides.
The format of your PowerPoint slides should be 16:9.
We are working with a Windows system. If you’re creating your presentation on a Mac, please double‑check that the file is fully compatible with Windows.
Uploading your presentation happens at the venue on a dedicated laptop in the main room. Please make sure your presentations are on a hard drive / flash drive for transferring to the venue’s computer – Do NOT rely on being able to download your presentation from the cloud as there could be access and security issues.
The presentation types are:
1) Plenary talks (including ECR Plenary) (30 minutes, including questions)
2) Standard talk (10 minutes, including questions)
3) Elevator pitch (2 minutes, plus one question)
4) Breakout group (one hour of discussion around a specific topic with a smaller group of delegates)
Abstract Assessment Process
Abstract submission has now closed. Applications were invited from all members of AWRN, both stakeholders and academics, to present at the upcoming 10th Annual Meeting. Presentations were scored blind by members of the Coordinating Group of AWRN. They were scored on scientific merit, originality and timeliness, relevance to animal welfare and AWRN, relevance to the Annual Meeting topic and clarity of writing. They were also be asked to consider any ethical concerns with the work carried out.
Event Attendance Fund
The AWRN Event Attendance Fund has now closed for applications. It aims to provide flexible funding to enable members to attend the AWRN Annual Meeting. It can be used to cover the costs of travel and accommodation for the AWRN Annual Meeting for those who don’t have alternative means of paying. It can also cover additional costs incurred such as paying for childcare or for a carer to accompany someone to a meeting, thus widening participation.
