Regular updates on what’s happening with Lush Prize
The 2013 Lush Prize is now open for nominations.
A further £250,000 is available for ‘outstanding contributions’ to replacing animal use in product safety testing.
Nominations and entries are sought across the same five categories as last year:
• Science
• Training
• Lobbying
• Public Awareness
• Young Researcher
The closing date for nominations is July 15th 2013.
Projects achieving their goals in the last twelve months particularly are sought. Individuals can nominate projects they like, or organisations can nominate themselves.
Although there was great news last month that a complete ingredients testing ban was being enforced across Europe, animal tests on cosmetics and ingredients will still be carried out across Asia and the Americas.
The goal of the Lush Prize – to encourage the scientific, regulatory and campaigning communities everywhere to focus their attention on animal-free safety testing – is still as important as ever.
The 2012 winners were inspiring and ground breaking across all categories. We hope that this year’s awards will be able to build on that momentum.
Posted on: April 15 2013
On 11th March 2013 the European Union banned the sale of new cosmetic products containing ingredients tested on animals with immediate effect.
The EU ban means that any company wishing to sell new cosmetic products within the European Union must ensure that none of the ingredients, or finished products, have been tested on animals anywhere in the world. The ban affects all cosmetics including toiletries and beauty products from soap to toothpaste.
The ban was originally applied in March 2009 for all human health effects but an exception was made for repeated-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity and toxicokinetics testing ‘until alternatives were found’.
However the new ban now applies ‘irrespective of the availability of alternative non-animal tests.’ This will increase pressure and resources for further research and validation of no- animal methods, a goal in line with those of the Lush Prize.
Prior to this ban, the EU had allowed the sale of products tested on animals for certain specific risks in countries where no such ban existed, including the United States, Canada, Brazil and Russia. In some countries, including China animal testing is mandatory for some cosmetic ingredients and products.
The New York Times noted that this “global divergence in safety rules” could mean that companies sell the same product globally, but market one version for countries like China backed up by safety evidence from animal tests, and another version for Europe backed up by evidence from alternative tests.
They also quoted a German campaigner, Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, who said that companies still “could use ingredients from tests on animals as long as the tests were carried out for non-cosmetic products like pharmaceuticals or chemicals.“ Ms. Roth-Behrendt said she did not know if the loophole followed pressure from the industry, but added, “This is wrong.”
Campaigners around the world have warmly welcomed the ban and are now focussing their pressure on those countries where testing is still required or carried out.
The Lush Prize, already global in its focus (see the 2012 Prize Winners), is well set to play its part in encouraging this new trend.
Posted on: April 11 2013
The 2012 prize winners who were able to attend the award ceremony explain, in their own words a bit about the research or campaigning they are doing.
Young Researcher award winnner Elizabeth Woehrling talks about growing human nerve cells in Birmingham.
Birgitte Landesmann & Milena Mennecozzi from The Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Italy explain their work on toxicity pathways in heptatoxicology and developmental toxicology which was awarded the Science prize.
Hiromi Kamekura of Japan Anti-Vivisection Association explains how they approached their successful campaign to persuade Shiseido to abandon animal testing which won the Public Awareness prize.
Dr Rodger Curren & Erin Hill give details about their work training researchers in non-animal methods from Brazil to Japan for which the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, USA was awarded the Training prize.
Troy Seidle of Lobbying prize winner Humane Society International discusseslobbying on pesticide testing rules in Europe
We’ve also added a photo gallery of the event.
More in-depth video interviews with our judges will follow over the next few months, and we’ll also be announcing the timetable for nominations for the 2013 Prize.
Posted on: January 14 2013
The 2012 Prize Winners announced last night were as follows:
Science Prize
Institute for Health and Consumer Protection, Italy (£50,000)
For their work on toxicity pathways in heptatoxicology and developmental toxicology
http://ihcp.jrc.ec.europa.eu
Lobbying Prize
Humane Society International, USA (£40,000)
For their work on removing animal tests from the EU’s non-food pesticide regulations
http://www.hsi.org
Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), India (£5,000)
For their research and lobbying on animal testing in India
http://www.fiapo.org
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India (£5,000)
For their work with Indian regulators on a cosmetics testing ban
http://www.petaindia.com
Training Prize
Institute for In Vitro Sciences, USA (£25,000)
For their vital work on training researchers in non-animal methods from Brazil to Japan
http://www.iivs.org
InterNICHE, (£25,000)
For their work in training in former Soviet states, South America and Africa
http://www.interniche.org
Public Awareness Prize
Japan Anti-Vivisection Association, Japan (£30,000)
For their successful campaign to persuade Shiseido to abandon animal testing
http://www.java-animal.org
Decipher Films, Canada (£10,000)
For their feature film ‘Maximum Tolerated Dose’ on animal testing
http://maximumtolerateddose.org
VITA Animal Rights Centre, Russia (£10,000)
For their work on awareness raising with the Russian media
http://www.vita.org.ru
Young Researcher Prize
Elizabeth Woehrling, UK (£12,500)
For her work on the development of a new in vitro test for neurotoxicity
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/elizabeth-woehrling/35/823/56a
Felix Rivera-Mariani, USA (£12,500)
For work on expanding an existing non animal test into new areas
http://www.linkedin.com/in/felixeriveramariani
Chiara Scanarotti, Italy (£12,500)
For her work on skin sensitisation and chemical mixtures
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chiara_Scanarotti
Line Mathiesen, Denmark (£12,500)
For her work on studying the impact of toxics on placental tissue
http://publichealth.ku.dk
Posted on: November 16 2012
Around 120 people will be attending the awards dinner tonight to find out who has won the 2012 Lush Prize. People are already gathering at the venue in Shoreditch to hear a global skyped-in debate on animal intelligence, and to tour a ‘future space’ installation showing a world where animal testing no longer exists.
Tomorrow we will be posting a full list of winners on this website and mailing our Newsletter list to keep everyone up-to-date. Over the coming weeks and months we will be posting video interviews with both the winners and the judges to share with you some of the inspiring projects which have won this year.
Posted on: November 15 2012
Today we formally announced our short list for the 2012 awards. And with more than thirty projects from fifteen different countries making it through to the final list, the Prize is developing a truly international feel. Successful nominations have arrived from as far away as Russia, Pakistan, Japan and the USA.
The short list shows the huge variety of excellent work that has been achieved in the last year. And the global nature of the projects illustrates the global scale of consumer product safety testing on animals. All the people who have made it to the short list though should be proud of the outstanding contribution that their work has made to the replacement of animal use in 2011/12.
View the full short list here.
Our Judges will meet in London to pick the winners on October 15th. The winners will be announced at a ground-breaking awards event on November 15th. Watch this space for more information.
Posted on: October 8 2012
The Lush Prize is designed to make awards in five key areas which will make a lasting impact in removing animals from product safety testing. They are:
- Science
- Training
- Public Awareness
- Lobbying
- Young Researcher
As part of the process of identifying the most outstanding contribution in each of these fields, the Prize has commissioned five Research Papers to complement the public nominations process.
Somewhat later than planned, all these reports are now available to download as PDFs on our website from this page.
Although discussing quite technical topics, the papers are designed to be understandable for the general reader. We welcome comment and criticism of the papers as part of our mission to improve the effectiveness of the Prize in future years.
Posted on: September 25 2012
The Lush Prize Team here at Ethical Consumer have been busy all this week and last reviewing nominations for the 2012 Lush Prize – no mean feat with almost 200 to choose from! Combined with our own area specific research we have selected a short list in each category, of the nominations we feel most demonstrate genuine excellence and innovation.
With nominations going through to the judges from sixteen different countries – from the US to Russia, Pakistan to Japan, the Lush Prize has developed a truly international feel.
The judges have one month to review the short list before judging day on October 15th. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on November 15th. Watch this space for more details…
Posted on: September 14 2012
Nominations for the 2012 Lush Prize closed on September 1st. We’ve got more than 180 nominations in total giving us some really great projects to choose from in all five categories.
The Lush Prize team here in Manchester is busy this week coming up with a short list of projects in each category to go forward to the judges. The entries are truly global, including film-makers in Canada, Young Researchers in Pakistan, and campaigners in Japan. We’re convinced that the final winners will be an inspiring bunch.
We’re also delighted to confirm the appointment of our final specialist Judge – Lisbeth E Knudsen, Professor of Toxicology at Copenhagen University. She’s got a wealth of experience in working towards alternative test methods across most of our categories and so is a perfect fit for the Prize.
Finally the five research papers have all been completed. We’re busy working these up for publication on the website next week too. Watch this space for more details of the Awards due to be held in London on November 15th.
Posted on: September 11 2012
With a closing date of September 1st, the last chance to nominate organisations involved in cruelty-free research and campaigning against animal testing for this year’s Lush Prize is fast approaching.
According to Katy Brown, Prize Fund manager: “We’ve already had nearly a hundred nominations from around the world with entries coming in from the US, France, Portugal, Ireland and Monaco, as well as the UK. The Public Awareness Prize has the most nominations to date, so we are now particularly seeking nominations in the science, training, lobbying and young researcher prize categories.
The Lush Prize Team has also appointed its next four judges.
More details about Gill Langley, Dr Kelly BéruBé, Nick Jukes and Dr. Hajime Kojima appear on our judges page.
Posted on: August 10 2012
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