Andrew Blake Tribute Award
The Andrew Blake Tribute Award commemorates the work and life of Andrew Blake, who in 1990 founded the charity Seriously Ill for Medical Research. Andrew suffered from Friedrich’s ataxia, a hereditary condition described as one of the “worst of neurological diseases”. Andrew died in May 2002 aged 39.
Andrew was passionate about the need to support scientists in their work and his commitment to speaking out against animal rights activists took up much of the last ten years of his life. He died shortly before he was to collect his MBE.
The story behind ABTA
Seriously Ill for Medical Research campaigned very effectively on behalf of scientists working in medical research for fifteen years. It attracted the support of a wide variety of opinion formers from the world of politics, business and entertainment, as well as from science.
Through lobbying and media work it was able to present a strong and reasoned argument that society as a whole had a responsibility to support and defend scientists and laboratory animal technicians supporting their work. It articulated powerful arguments, based in scientific fact, against unreasonable and unfounded accusations of cruelty in animal research. In part it was effective because Andrew Blake worked tirelessly to win the active support of people who were seen as unbiased and trustworthy.
The charity was wound up in 2006, by which time Government was seen to have taken effective steps against extremists. Although he did not live to see it, Andrew Blake succeeded. His work helped achieve better policing, stronger legislation and increased funding from Government to protect scientists and research organisations.
The Award
In recognition of Andrew’s commitment to animal welfare; The Andrew Blake Tribute Award is presented by the Institute of Animal Technology and sponsored by The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (the NC3Rs) to an animal technologist judged to have made a significant contribution to improving laboratory animal welfare.
The Andrew Blake Tribute Award is awarded annually, where sponsorship allows, to the animal technologist judged to have made the most significant contribution to improving standards in laboratory animal welfare over the previous twelve months.
The award is made to acknowledge the professional and personal commitment of animal technologists to improving standards in all aspects of laboratory animal care and welfare.
The Award comprises:
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a free invitation to attend IAT Congress
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an engraved glass plaque
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a £250 cash award
The winning entry will be reported in IAT ‘Bulletin’, the appropriate IAT Congress Handbook, and on the IAT website. It may be published in the IAT Journal ‘Animal Technology and Welfare’, it will be circulate to ABPI members and with the agreement of sponsor and winner, be promoted to reputable to scientific colleagues and reputable scientific media.
Our Sponsors
The NC3Rs is a UK-based scientific organisation that works nationally and internationally with the research community to replace, refine and reduce the use of animals in research and testing.
We collaborate with scientists and organisations from across the life sciences sector, nationally and internationally, including universities, the pharmaceutical, chemical and consumer products industries, other research funders, and regulatory authorities.
We support the commitment of the scientific community to the 3Rs by funding research and early career development, supporting open innovation and the commercialisation of 3Rs technologies, and stimulating changes in policy, regulations and practice.
How to Apply
The topic of work that you describe in your application may be undertaken as part of project and presented as a poster / an essay / a project / a scientific paper.
The submission, which should contain the content detailed in the Submission Guidelines, should be submitted online via the link below.
To allow others to be able to replicate the work, please consult the ARRIVE guidelines
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