Animal research direly needs an open science revolution! Traditional barriers for sharing data (i.e. privacy concerns) do not apply to data collected in animals. Still, the open science mindset hasn’t permeated the animal research community. We are actively changing this. To open up animal research, we will aggregate and curate datasets from multiple animal imaging centers worldwide, and distribute open software for preprocessing. To enable laboratories to engage in open science practices, we will organize workshops to transfer technical know-how to our research community. By leading by example, we hope to inspire the next generation of animal researchers.