Compassion has formed a strategic partnership with the University of Winchester.

The Memorandum of Agreement commits both organisations to support relevant initiatives and campaigns, promote co-operation and enhance each other’s work in the areas of animal welfare, education and environmentally sustainable food and farming systems.

Working together

There are plans for joint research projects to be run through the University’s new Centre for Animal Welfare. Through its own Centre of Excellence for farm animal welfare, Compassion in turn will feed in to the University’s new undergraduate and post-graduate animal welfare courses.

The two charities may issue joint publications through the University of Winchester Press and senior Compassion staff will be invited to give lectures at the University. Compassion will play a supervisory role for relevant PhD students and provide internships and volunteering opportunities to students.

Compassion has promised to run an annual essay competition for students, with winning entries being published in our magazine “Farm Animal Voice” and on our website.

Centre of Excellence

Compassion plans to expand its role as a Centre of Excellence on the welfare of farm animals and on the impacts of farming methods on the environment, resource use and livelihoods.

The University of Winchester was the first UK university to receive a gold Food for Life Catering Mark award, and a Good Chicken Award and a Good Egg Award in 2009 from Compassion in World Farming. 

We are delighted to announce this wide-ranging strategic partnership that will enable us to share expertise in animal welfare. We look forward to leveraging the platform in a variety of ways including the development of joint academic publications over the coming years.

Philip Lymbery, CEO Compassion in World Farming

Update: Further to that powerful partnership, in May 2016, the University of Winchester launched a new Centre for Animal Welfare - a new vibrant hub for events, teaching, and research on the subject of animal welfare.