Pump Priming Award
The Pump Priming Award will not be running in 2026 while we evaluate this award.
These grants have been made possible over the years through the British Nutrition Foundation’s management of the Drummond Memorial Fund, established in memory of the work and contribution of Sir Jack Drummond.
The 2025 Pump Priming Award winner: Dr Grainne Whelehan, Leicester Diabetes Centre, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
The 2024 Pump Priming Award winner: Dr Victoria Norton, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Reading
You can watch a video of Dr Norton talking about her award for her research project 'SCREEN IT: developing a quick dietary fibre screening tool for the UK population' here.
Dr Norton said:
"Fibre is a nutrient of interest due to its well-proven health benefits; however, less than 10% of the UK population meet the 30g per day recommendation. Therefore, overcoming common barriers, such as insufficient intake of fibre-rich foods (e.g., fruits, vegetables, beans, pulses, wholegrains, nuts, seeds) and lack of fibre-related knowledge/awareness is key. In addition, nutritional assessment can be challenging and time consuming; thus, developing a quick and easy fibre screening tool is fundamental. Overall, this project aims to validate a screening tool for the UK population to track fibre consumption habits and initiate diet-related conversations."
Previous winners
- 2024 Dr Victoria Norton, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Reading,SCREEN IT: developing a quick dietary fibre screening tool for the UK population
- 2023 Dr Noshin Daud, The Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, Investigation of tumour cytotoxic effects of gut bacteria grown in β-glucan-supplemented medium
- 2022 Dr Aygul Dagbasi, Post-doctoral Researcher at Imperial College London, Understanding the impact of food structures on ileal metabolites and gut hormone release
- 2020 Dr Luciana Torquati, Lecturer in Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition Sport and Health Sciences at the University of Exeter, The role of gut microbiome on endurance exercise capacity
- 2019 Dr David Clayton, Lecturer in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology at Nottingham Trent University, 'Optimising intermittent fasting: Evaluating the behavioural and metabolic effects of extended morning and evening fasting' & Dr Rachel Gibson, Lecturer in Nutrition & Dietetics at King’s College London, 'Working hours and cardiometabolic health – an emerging area of nutritional research'
