Farm Animal Welfare Data Sharing Open Access

Open welfare data sharing accelerates scientific progress and enables better decision-making across the farm animal welfare sector.

Key Facts

Farm animal welfare research generates extensive data that is often published behind paywalls
Sharing welfare assessment data across farms and systems enables benchmarking at scale
Open data initiatives in human health have dramatically accelerated research - analogous approaches could benefit animal welfare
FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) are being adopted in some welfare research
Data privacy concerns including commercial confidentiality are genuine barriers to open sharing
Pre-competitive data sharing agreements between industry competitors are proving possible in some sectors

Welfare Considerations

Open welfare data sharing is a public good that has been undersupplied by the farm animal welfare research community. Data generated with public research funding should be publicly available. Industry-scale data sharing enables pattern recognition and intervention targeting impossible with individual farm or study data.

What You Can Do

Support open access research mandates for publicly funded animal welfare science
Advocate for pre-competitive welfare data sharing agreements in major livestock sectors
Engage with FAIR data initiatives in animal welfare research institutions
Support organisations like AssureWel that aggregate and share welfare outcome data
Donate to animal welfare research institutions committed to open access publication