LONDON — The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation formally opened its global research application portal on Tuesday, inviting scientists from across the world to submit proposals for funding from its newly established £10 million allergy research initiative. The fund, announced by Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse — parents of Natasha, who died in 2016 after eating a Pret a Manger baguette containing undeclared sesame — represents one of the largest privately funded allergy research commitments in British history.

The Foundation confirmed that priority areas for funding include early-intervention therapies for food allergies, improved diagnostic tools, and research into the mechanisms behind anaphylaxis. Applications are open to universities, research hospitals, and independent scientific institutions across Europe, North America, and beyond, with initial grants expected to be announced in the autumn of 2026.

Nadim Ednan-Laperouse said the opening of applications marked a turning point in the family's decade-long campaign. 'Natasha's Law changed how food is labelled in Britain, but law alone cannot save lives — science must lead the way,' he said in a statement issued by the Foundation. 'We are asking the world's best researchers to help us end the fear that millions of allergy sufferers and their families live with every day.'

The initiative has already drawn expressions of interest from research teams at King's College London, the University of Manchester, and several institutions in the United States and Canada. Allergy UK and the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology both welcomed the fund's launch, calling it a catalyst for a field that has historically been underfunded relative to the scale of its public health impact.

Natasha's Law, which came into force in October 2021, requires full ingredient labelling on all foods pre-packaged for direct sale in England, Scotland, and Wales. The new research fund is seen as the family's next step beyond legislative advocacy, with the Foundation's trustees setting a target of producing at least five peer-reviewed breakthroughs within a decade that could translate into clinical treatments for the estimated two million people in the UK living with a diagnosed food allergy.