The behavioral management consortium: A partnership for promoting consensus and best practices

10The seven National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) form a network of institutions serving as a national scientific resource for research using nonhuman primates (NHPs). Each center provides animals, expertise, and specialized facilities and equipment to scientists conducting research aiming to advance human health. In the early 2000s, the coordinators of NHP behavioral management programs from the NPRCs and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began conferring, sharing information and strategies, collaborating on workshops and symposia at scientific meetings, and coauthoring publications (e.g., Weed et al. 2003; Baker et al. 2007). During this same time frame, NIH was encouraging an increased level of collaboration across the NPRCs with the aim of strengthening communications, leveraging system-wide resources, and facilitating the sharing of information and best practices across institutions (see nprcresearch.org). Established in partnership with the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (now the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs), the NPRC Consortium consists of working groups in a number of areas, including behavioral management.