What is Driving the Need for QSAR? Over the coming months, IQF will present summaries of and invite commentaries on the regulatory and other incentives for expanding the use of QSAR models and reducing our reliance on costly animal tests in public safety assessments. Many involved in chemical risk assessments and public safety are aware of the proposals in the European Union regulatory framework for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH). Although REACH is credited with stimulating a greater global emphasis for QSAR development, there is little evidence that REACH will produce any significant incentives for building new models or educating scientists in a way that would make the proposals in REACH a true landmark in more strategic use of animal testing. Many legislators are looking to chemical industry to fund the needed research in QSAR, and the chemical industry has a wait-n-see approach to funding research that is normally the responsibility of governments. The real incentive for using QSAR models is the realization by many regulatory authorities that the conventional risk assessment approach is not sustainable. For every chemical that receives a comprehensive risk assessment, 10 to100 chemicals being used are barely screened and may not have been assessed at all. The time-consuming requirements in regulatory risk assessment may be scientifically defensible if an agency only had to review a few chemicals a year. However, if decisions are required by law within a specific time period and there are 1,000 chemical or more to be reviewed, those agencies set-up to protect the public cannot evaluate all risks. A major reason is that there is no technology for authorities to set risk-based priorities for allocating assessor workloads so that public dollars are spent on the chemicals with the greatest risks…at least not prior to having extensive animal test data to set priorities. The solution is to integrate QSAR models into screening protocols to improve priorities and to prescribe test batteries that are chemical specific. Many agencies are calling for a paradigm shift in the way we do risk assessment, and have already begun to incorporate QSAR methods into their priority-setting decisions. There are some signs that governments may eventually fund more research and education in QSAR modeling, but it seems a certainty that public support will fuel the movement to reduce animal testing with QSAR technology.