Driving Environmental Sustainability in Research Organisations: Building Institutional Strategies for Change

23 Jan. 2026
Register before 23-01-2026 12:00

About the Webinar

Many research funding and performing organisations belonging to Science Europe have developed, or planning to develop sustainability strategies to address the environmental footprint of research, as part of their commitment to responsible research practices and the transition towards more sustainable research systems.

On 23 January 2026, between 14:00-16:00 CET, Science Europe is organising a webinar to discuss the importance of such strategies for research organisations, and the lessons learned from their development and implementation. 

The webinar will build on the discussions from 2024, leading to the development of the landmark Framework for the Environmental Sustainability of Research Organisations, which promotes environmental sustainability as a fundamental value for research organisations and sets out a roadmap to reduce or mitigate the environmental footprint of research.

Programme

Time Title 
14.00-14.05

Welcome

  •  Lidia Borrell-Damián, Secretary General, Science Europe
  • Pablo Del Río, Co-Chair of the SE task force on environmental footprint of research organisations; Senior Researcher, CSIC
14.05-14.20

Setting the scene

  • Rodrigo Lozano, Researcher, CSIC 
14.20-15.00

Environmental sustainability strategies of SE MOs: best practices and lessons learned

  • Dolores Del Castillo, Senior Scientist and Head of Food Bioscience Group in the Food Science Research Institute (CIAL-CSIC-UAM), CSIC
  • Julia Seixas, Pro-Rector, NOVA University Lisbon 
  • Lea Quilitz, Head of Sustainability at the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
  • Rúna Vigdís Guðmarsdóttir, Director, Erasmus+ National Agency within Rannis, Iceland 

Moderated by Pablo Del Río
15.00-15.20

Q&A Session
15.20-15.30

Concluding remarks

  • Pablo Del Río  
  • DianaPotjomkina, Senior Policy Officer, Science Europe
14.11.2024

Framework for the Environmental Sustainability of Research Organisations

The present Framework introduces strategic directions for Science Europe Member Organisations to share practices and coordinate efforts. In addition to leading by example, the objective is to achieve systemic change – pursuing environmental sustainability of research organisations’ activities – including mitigating climate impacts. Other important questions, such as funding for research on sustainability, as well as the economic and social dimensions of sustainability, fall outside of the scope of this Framework and may be the subject of future actions.