Experimental Design and Analysis of Data from Animal Experiments | 8th Edition

17-19 November 2026 | i3S, Porto, Portugal

This three-day course aims at making researchers – in biomedical or veterinary research, as well as other fields – sufficiently knowledgeable on experimental design and statistics to make results from their studies more reliable, robust and reproducible, while avoiding animal waste and complying with the 3Rs of animal research, with particular emphasis on ''Reduction'.

Course organizer: Nuno Franco, i3S

Target audience: This course is particularly aimed at researchers designing and/or carrying out animal studies, in biomedical or veterinary research, as well as other fields. It is also highly recommended for members of Animal Welfare Bodies or Competent Authorities responsible for evaluating animal research projects.

Course duration: 18h

Course language: English

Requirements: A laptop will be necessary to participate in the course, in order to run the statistics software. Students should have installed beforehand free software InVivoStat and G-Power.

Poster >>

The course will be held at i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, University of Porto.
Rua Alfredo Allen, 208; 4200-135 Porto, Portugal
Tel: +351 226 074 900 | E-mail: events@i3s.up.pt
GPS coordinates: 41º 10’ 30.008’’ N, 8º 36’ 12.488’’ W.

Course Programme:

• Planning for reproducibility in animal research
• Common mistakes in design and execution of experiments
• Formulating objectives and testing hypotheses
• Avoidance of bias (randomization, blind assessment, adequate controls)
• Formal experimental designs
• Independent replication and appropriate experimental units
• Estimating an adequate sample size
• Basic concepts in probability and statistics
• Single and two factor analysis of variance
• Analysis of covariance
• Data transformations and non-parametric methods
• Multivariate analysis of variance

Derek John Fry - University of Manchester

Pedro Oliveira - ICBAS, University of Porto

Nuno Henrique Franco - i3S, University of Porto

Denisa Mendonça - ICBAS, University of Porto

Admission criteria:

• Course participants should have, as a minimum, a BSc degree in the natural or exact sciences, animal science, or veterinary medicine.

Registration fees:
Registration and payment deadline: 1st October 2026

i3S / P.CCC Raquel Seruca members: 195€

External participants with previous participation in i3S LAS Course*: 195€

External participants: 275€

*FELASA accredited Course for functions A, B, and D (mouse, rat, zebrafish, and fish species-specific) aligned with the European Directive 2010/63

Registration form >>

A certificate of attendance will be assigned to all participants participating in all lectures and exercises. A final exam will be carried out, and for those passing the exam, a certificate explicitly stating the passing of an exam will be issued.

Cancelation policy:
The i3S will apply the following cancelation policy.

Cancellation by the course participant
In case a registered participant wishes to cancel a payed registration or does not attend the course, the registration fee will not be refunded.
Substitutions will only be made in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the course organisers.

Cancellation by the Institution
The i3S reserves the right to cancel the course, in case of an insufficient number of participants, organizational reasons, or other unforeseeable events that render the execution of the course impossible. In case of cancelation by the organization the fee will be refunded.
In addition, i3S reserves the right to amend course times, dates or published prices if absolutely necessary. The organizer shall immediately inform the pre-registered participants of these alterations. Any cancellation or substitution requests should be requested by e-mail.

More information:
Advanced Training Unit | E-mail: training@i3s.up.pt | Tel: +351 226 074 900