The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will appoint a planning committee to organize and convene a workshop on challenges to rapid and sustained institutional response by the laboratory animal research community during infectious disease pandemics. The workshop will focus on the current COVID-19 pandemic and draw upon lessons being learned to inform and improve institutional level responses. Presentations and panel discussions will explore the following topics and questions:

· Institutional-level barriers and potential solutions for 1) mobilizing a rapid and sustained response in operational infrastructure, and administrative and animal research professional and technical services; and 2) expediting the overall conduct of laboratory animal research on emergent pathogens (e.g. pre-identification, training, certification, and clearance of principal investigators and technical staff for work under Animal Biosafety Level 2 – 4 conditions).

• Opportunities and challenges across public and private institutions to enhance collaboration and information-sharing among laboratory animal research support communities (e.g. programmatic and facilities issues, public engagement, the relevance of using animals in such research).

• Strategies, synergies and collaborations within and among the laboratory animal research community that could leverage national level research resources, facilitate knowledge acquisition and sharing, and identify knowledge gaps.

The workshop presentations and discussions will be documented in a workshop proceedings authored by rapporteur(s) in accordance with National Academies guidelines.