The 13th edition of the World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences (WC13) took place from 31 August to 4 September 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This major international event brought together around 2,000 participants from academia, industry, innovation communities, and other stakeholder groups. Over five days, attendees took part in 141 sessions organised across five main themes: One Health, Human Health, Animal Health, Environmental Health, and Education.
Representing the SSbD4CheM project, Barry Hardy and Connor Hardy (Edelweiss Connect) participated in the congress. Barry Hardy delivered two oral presentations on AI in risk assessment and Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) on 1 September, in Session 132 (“Application of New Approach Methods in the Safe and Sustainable Design of Innovative Products”) and Session 20 (“Artificial Intelligence to reduce and replace animal testing”). He also chaired the Session 132.
The presentations were titled:
- “AI-assisted Next Generation Risk Assessment and Safe and Sustainable by Design Workflows enabled by FAIR Data and Knowledge”
- “Safe and Sustainable by Design Workflows supporting Product Design and Decision Making”
The congress offered a valuable opportunity to identify potential new collaborations and to disseminate the work carried out within the SSbD4CheM project.
The conference agenda is available here.

