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.

Lush Prize 2012

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.

Lush Prize 2012

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.

Lush Prize 2012

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

Lush Prize 2012

Lush Prize 2012

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.

Lush Prize 2012

- 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.

Lush Prize 2012

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…

Lush Prize 2012

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.

Lush Prize 2012

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.

Lush Prize 2012