A £10m prize fund has been unveiled by charity Natasha’s Foundation to help create a future without food allergies.
Natasha’s Prize, named after 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse who died in 2016 from an allergic reaction to sesame in a Pret baguette, is aimed at uniting scientific minds to develop preventative solutions to allergies affecting 220 million people worldwide.
The £10m investment over five years represents the largest fund for food allergy research ever awarded in the UK. It includes donations from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Marks & Spencer, Pret owner JAB Holding Company and donations raised through The Times and The Sunday Times Christmas Appeal.
Achieving meaningful breakthroughs is expected to require significantly greater funding and collaboration, thus the Foundation is seeking additional investors and partners.
Whilst noone is born with a food allergy, rates have been rising around the world over the last two decades, according to the Foundation. Previous research suggests causes include changes to our environment – such as more industrial farming methods, climate change and pollution, and less time spent in nature – as well as diet, genetics, and changes to our immune system.
It is believed that food allergy is preventable, so Natasha’s Prize will ask the question: what interventions can be made from conception to the age of two that could stop food allergy developing in the first place? The first 1,000 days have been chosen as it represents a critical window of opportunity for intervention.
Scientists from across the world and in different disciplines, including allergists, AI data analysts, dieticians, engineers, social and environmental scientists, microbiologists and epidemiologists, are invited to apply to Natasha’s Prize with an entry deadline of 3 July. Applicants chosen by the Prize’s scientific advisory panel will be brought together in Windsor this October to discuss the solutions needed to prevent food allergy.
The most promising and impactful ideas will then be invited to submit detailed proposals for funding by next March, with the Foundation’s Trustees and the scientific advisory panel selecting winners to be announced on 1 June 2027.
“The solution could be an intervention that primes the immune system to avoid food allergy, or preventative lifestyle changes,” commented Professor Sir Stephen Holgate CBE, Natasha’s Prize Director and Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology and Honorary Consultant Physician at the University of Southampton. “But we don’t want to prejudice the brainstorming process. We want to think creatively, boldly and without constraints. We could go in a completely different direction that we cannot yet anticipate.”
Tanya Ednan-Laperouse OBE, Natasha’s mother who started the Foundation with her husband Nadim in 2019, said the Prize “has been in our hearts for a long time”. “We want this Prize to galvanise the best science to stop food allergy before it starts, so no other families have to go through the heartbreak we will always endure,” she added.
Dame Dr Maggie Aderin, space scientist and Natasha’s Prize Ambassador, who is allergic to cows’ milk, Brazil nuts and crustaceans, said: “As kids are born, if they develop food allergy it can affect the rest of their lives. But if we can stop food allergy right from birth, they will have a completely different life. So, this prize is going to be amazing for so many people.”
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