The 2015 Lush Prize – PETA International Science Consortium Wins

Posted by on November 20, 2015 | Permalink

The PETA International Science Consortium has just won the prestigious Lush Prize for Training!

One of the ways that Lush fights cruel animal experiments is by accelerating the work of those seeking alternatives. The Lush Prize not only honours innovators but also offers a cash prize to advance their efforts. This year, we’re proud to say that the Science Consortium, of which PETA is a member, is a winner!

LUSH Prize

Lush Prize WinnerThe Science Consortium won the training prize for its broad approach to providing educational outreach to companies and regulators through organising webinars, initiating face-to-face training sessions and developing educational resources to promote non-animal methods. As one example, the Science Consortium developed and organised a free webinar series on incorporating non-animal methods into testing strategies which reached thousands of scientists, company representatives and regulators live, and many more viewed the presentations online. The Science Consortium also initiated training sessions on the use of non-animal methods for regulatory agencies and has provided guidance on ways in which animal testing can be avoided. It does so through its website, published journal articles and presentations at international conferences and workshops.

Dr Gilly Stoddart, associate director for the Science Consortium, accepted the award and the £25,000 prize. She said the following:

Reports demonstrate that companies and regulators have not been doing all they can to ensure that testing on animals is conducted only as a last resort. It is vital that regulators, company representatives and contractors be suitably trained on the vast array of non-animal approaches that can be used to fulfil regulatory requirements, and the PETA International Science Consortium is filling that critical need.

At the Lush Prize ceremony in London, hosted by Sara Pascoe, prize partner Ethical Consumer magazine organised a fantastic evening of vegan food, previews of innovative technology that would help spare animal lives and inspiring speeches from category winners from around the world working in the field of cruelty-free scientific research, awareness-raising and lobbying.

Lush-Prize-May-and-Pascoe

Lush-Prize-2015-Award

A photo posted by Melissa Mastro (@melissaamastro) on

The Science Consortium is honoured and thrilled to have had its work recognised with this prestigious prize. It now joins the impressive list of past Lush Prize winners, including PETA India for its work with Indian regulators on a ban on animal testing for cosmetics and PETA US’ Laboratory Investigations Department for its high-profile campaigns against organisations that test on animals and provide support services for animal testing.

Learn more about how the Science Consortium promotes and funds non-animal research methods to champion the best non-animal methods available and eliminate tests on animals, or make a donation to support PETA’s work for all animals: