Introducing the Longitude Prize on ALS - Transforming drug discovery with AI

The Longitude Prize on ALS is a new £7.5 million global challenge prize to incentivise and reward cutting edge AI-based approaches to transform drug discovery for the treatment of ALS, the most common form of MND.

Open for entries from 25 June until 3 December 2025, it will initially award 20 teams £100,000 each in early 2026, with one team going on to win £1 million at the end of the five year Prize. 

Although some very limited treatments exist to slow the progression of ALS for a short time, the complexity of the disease means that there are no long-term treatments and no cure. For the first time, however, advances in AI mean innovators now have the opportunity to outpace the disease by unlocking vast quantities of patient data that have been generated in the last decade.

“Never before have we had the power to unlock the complexity of MND, and in particular ALS, and accelerate along the road to long-term treatments, and, I hope one day, a cure. The Longitude Prize on ALS makes this possible, convening the largest data set of ALS patient data of its kind ever made available and rewarding researchers to use AI to identify the most promising drug targets.”

Tris Dyson, Managing Director at Challenge Works, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2023 

Beyond financial reward, successful applicants will gain access to the largest and most comprehensive collections of ALS patient data of its kind, combining multiple types of biological information and brought together specifically for the Prize. This helps address a major challenge in ALS research, where data is often fragmented and difficult to access due to differing formats and restrictions.

Seeking innovators from across medical research, biotech, techbio, pharmaceuticals and AI, the Prize will support the top 20 most promising applications who show high potential in both their proposed methodology and team make-up, which should bring together expertise from across multiple disciplines including ALS research and computational biology.

The Prize is principally funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association and designed and delivered by Challenge Works, supported by Nesta, alongside additional global funders.

“Empowering some of the brightest minds across science and technology to come together, the Longitude Prize on ALS will initiate transformative change for people living with motor neurone disease. We are investing as a principal funder as enabling such collaborations, as well as the level of unprecedented data we’re working to unlock, marks the start of a significant milestone for drug discovery, the MND Association and wider MND community in how we understand and consequently tackle the disease.”

Tanya Curry, Chief Executive at the Motor Neurone Disease Association

The Longitude Prize on ALS is the third Longitude Prize run by Challenge Works to incentivise breakthrough solutions for some of the world’s most challenging issues. It follows the success of the Longitude Prize on AMR that announced a winner in 2024, and the Longitude Prize on Dementia that will announce a winner in 2026.