A hundred-year-old animal welfare charity has changed its name in an effort to better reflect its mission.
The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), founded in 1926, will now be called Science for Animal Welfare.
A professional membership society for anyone working or studying in the field of animal welfare science, the charity declined to share the cost of the rebrand but said it undertook extensive research with members, academics, policymakers, staff and partners to inform the process.
Chair Emma-Louise Singh said the charity’s new brand was a reflection of its heritage and its future.
“We are immensely proud of our impact since our beginnings in 1926: from shaping the global framework for humane use of animals in research, to funding independent science, publishing peer-reviewed research, and advising policymakers worldwide today,” she said.
“Our new brand means we can be here to advance animal welfare science for another hundred years.”
Originally named the University of London Animal Welfare Society when it was founded by Charles Hume, the charity first changed its name to UFAW in 1938.
In the 1950s, scholars funded by the charity developed the “3Rs”: the replacement, reduction and refinement principles that today form the framework for humane treatment of animals used in research laboratories worldwide.
Chief executive Huw Golledge said: “The science we have always supported has radically improved how animals are treated around the world, from developing the 3Rs principles that transformed animal welfare standards in research, to fundamental discoveries about the emotional states of animals, to advocacy for more humane treatment of often-neglected species like so-called pest rodents.
“Science underscores everything we do, and finally, after one hundred years, we have a name to reflect that.”
The charity recorded an income of £401,000 and expenditure of £728,000 in the year to March 2025 and employed eight people on average.
It had total funds of £8.27m at the end of 2024-25, from which it generates returns to fund its work.
