Written and reviewed by the InVivoLabs team, drawing on 15+ years of hands-on work running preclinical surgical and in vivo programs on both the CRO and sponsor side. Last reviewed October 28, 2026.
What is a contract vivarium?
A contract vivarium is animal facility space that a sponsor rents rather than builds. The provider supplies the housing rooms, procedure space, husbandry staff, veterinary care and the regulatory framework for animal work. The sponsor’s own scientists design and run the studies. Providers describe the same idea in different ways: vivarium rental, in vivo research suites, dedicated or private suites, vivarium-as-a-service, or insourcing.
Building a vivarium is slow and expensive, and an empty one costs almost as much to run as a full one. Renting lets a company start in vivo work within weeks or months instead of years, and scale space up or down with the pipeline.
Space, full-service CRO, or a hybrid
| Model | Who runs the study | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Vivarium space only | Your scientists. The provider handles husbandry, vet care and compliance. | Teams with in vivo expertise, proprietary models, or iterative discovery work that changes week to week |
| Dedicated suite with technical support | Your scientists, with provider technicians for dosing, sampling or surgery on request | Growing teams that want control without hiring for every skill |
| Full-service CRO | The CRO’s staff, under a protocol you approve | Defined studies, GLP work, specialized species and procedures, or sponsors without in vivo staff |
The choice turns on how much in vivo expertise you have in-house and how fixed your study designs are. Rented space gives you control and speed between experiments; a full-service CRO gives you capacity, specialist skills and a quality system. Many companies use both: rented space for discovery models they run every week, and CROs for IND-enabling toxicology and specialized models. Browse in vivo pharmacology CROs for the full-service side.
Who uses contract vivarium space?
Startups and academic spinouts that need to keep generating in vivo data with their own team after leaving a university facility. Established biotechs waiting for an internal vivarium to be built, or needing overflow capacity. Companies with proprietary animal models, such as engineered mouse lines, that they prefer not to transfer to a CRO. And programs where the science changes faster than a CRO contract can be amended.
Biotech hubs such as Greater Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego have the most rental capacity, often inside life science incubators and multi-tenant lab buildings with a shared vivarium. Space in the densest clusters is scarce, so it is worth looking at suburban and regional providers within reasonable driving distance. See Massachusetts and California, or browse all locations.
What a contract vivarium should include
Usually included
Housing rooms or caging with environmental control and monitoring; daily husbandry, cage changes, feed, water and enrichment; veterinary care and health surveillance; animal ordering, receipt and quarantine; access to procedure rooms, biosafety cabinets and common equipment; an animal care and use program, including protocol review; and waste handling.
Often extra
Surgical suites and anesthesia equipment, imaging (in vivo optical imaging, ultrasound, micro-CT or MRI), behavior rooms, ABSL-2 containment, irradiators, specialized diets, breeding colony management, and technician time for dosing, sampling, surgery or necropsy.
Animal welfare oversight and compliance
In the US, your protocols are normally reviewed and approved by the host facility’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), and the facility’s USDA registration and, where relevant, PHS Assurance with OLAW cover the work. AAALAC accreditation is a widely used indicator of program quality. Outside the US, the equivalent is the local ethics review and national licensing system, such as project and personal licences in the UK or authorization under Directive 2010/63/EU in the EU.
Agree in writing who is responsible for what: protocol writing and amendments, training records, adverse event reporting, euthanasia decisions, and what happens if the host veterinarian and your scientists disagree about an animal’s welfare. Clear lines here prevent most of the friction in shared facilities.
How pricing works
Most providers charge some combination of a fixed monthly fee for a dedicated room or suite, a per diem per cage (or per animal for larger species), and hourly rates for technician time, surgery and imaging. Set-up fees for onboarding, training and protocol review are common, and minimum terms or notice periods apply to dedicated space.
When comparing providers, model the cost of a typical month at your expected cage census, including the support hours you will realistically use. A low per diem with expensive add-ons can cost more than an all-inclusive suite.
Questions to ask a contract vivarium
- Is the space dedicated to us, or shared with other tenants, and how are cross-contamination and health status managed between tenants?
- Which species, containment levels and procedures are approved in the facility?
- How long does onboarding take, from signed agreement to first animals, including protocol approval and staff training?
- What are the facility’s access hours, and is after-hours and weekend access available for time-critical procedures?
- Who provides veterinary care, and what experience do they have with our models and surgical procedures?
- Which technical services can your staff provide if we need help, and at what rates?
- When were your most recent USDA and AAALAC site visits, and were there findings?
- Who owns the data, and are there restrictions on publishing or on proprietary models housed in the facility?
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a contract vivarium and a CRO?
A contract vivarium provides the facility, animal care and regulatory oversight, while your own scientists design and run the studies. A full-service CRO also runs the studies for you: its staff dose, sample, observe and report. Many providers offer both, so you can start with space and add CRO technical support as needed.
Can our own staff work in a contract vivarium?
Yes, that is the point of the model. Your staff are usually trained and approved under the host’s animal care program, added to the relevant protocols, and given badge access to your suite or shared procedure rooms. Expect occupational health enrollment and facility training before first access.
Can studies in a contract vivarium be GLP?
Usually not. Space rental suits discovery and non-GLP work. A GLP study needs a study director, quality assurance unit and validated systems under one test facility’s management, which normally means a CRO running the study.
Do contract vivaria support BSL-2 work?
Many do, including ABSL-2 suites for viral vectors, human cells and some infectious agents, but capacity is limited. Confirm containment level, approved agents and biosafety committee review before you sign, and expect a longer approval timeline for biohazardous work.