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thumb|150px|right| The Basel Declaration Society is a scientific association established on October 5, 2011, with the aim of promoting the dissemination and advancement of the Basel Declaration, the ever more important international manifest in favor of research, care for animal welfare, and establishment of a transparent dialogue between scientists and stakeholders.

The Society
The purpose of the Basel Declaration Society is «to strengthen public awareness of the importance of animal models in experimental biomedical research, to foster communication between researchers and the public and to enhance acceptance of the Basel Declaration».

It is structured as a not for profit organization of Swiss law, based in Basel (Switzerland), whose participation is open to scientists and scientific institutions from the world over, which maintains independence and transparency being funded only through its associates' fees and overtly by sponsors

Its current President is Professor Rolf Zeller, from the Basel University.

A list of the board members can be reached via this link, while the Association Articles can be found here.

Significance
The significance of the Society is manyfold. It has been created to establish a common forum of experts supporting the Basel Declaration, able to speak with a single, prominent and respected voice when research is at stake, and to act as a credible interlocutor in public debates on research and animals. Today more than 1.300 researchers have signed the original Basel Declaration and help support and disseminate it daily. The creation of the Society will help coordinate their efforts towards the promotion of better science, to enroll additional support and to maintain and update the Declaration, and all in the interest of science and animal welfare. As such, the Society embodies a strong message: it ensures that the commitment the signatories have undergone with the Declaration is real, and that it stays a lasting one.