Greening Research Resources
In 2024, Science Europe launched a new set of activities on ‘Greening Research’. The objective is to work on reducing the ecological impacts of research activities and promote climate sustainability for Member Organisations.
The activities on Greening Research have so far culminated in a series of webinars, built on the experiences of the 2021–2023 Working Group on the Green and Digital Transition, the growing set of activities on Artificial Intelligence, and the mid-term review of Science Europe’s 2021–2026 Strategy Plan. This series was the first of its kind.
Additionally, a Framework for Greening Research is being developed, in dialogue with Member Organisations.
Greening Research Webinar Series
A series of webinars on Greening Research took place between 21 May and 4 June 2024, with the objectives to:
- Raise awareness: explore the environmental impact of research activities, helping to understand research organisations’ footprint.
- Discuss solutions: dive into principles, challenges, and methods for reducing the ecological footprint of research activities.
- Empower action: provide concrete examples and good practices for ‘greening research’, offering actionable steps.
This series was a collaborative effort with a number of Science Europe Member Organisations: Research Council of Finland (AKA), French National Research Agency (ANR), German Research Foundation (DFG), Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Portugal’s Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas), Dutch Research Council (NWO), Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Webinar 1: Sustainability Strategies in Research Organisations
Tuesday 21 May 2024, 14.00–15.00 (CEST)
The first webinar explored how research organisations are working towards sustainability. Specifically, the speakers dealt with how research funding and performing organisations assess their environmental impacts and are taking steps to reduce it.
- Measuring environmental impact: how do research organisations appraise their carbon footprint and ecological effects? What approaches do they use?
- Sustainability strategies: what strategies and tools are research organisations currently using, or developing, to reduce or mitigate their ecological impacts?
- Sharing best practices: what are some effective actions and practices that research organisations can share with each other to promote the sustainability of the whole research system?
Webinar 2: Greening Digitalisation
Tuesday 28 May 2024, 14.00–15.00 (CEST)
This second webinar focused on the environmental challenges posed by digitalisation in research activities, and how to make digital processes more sustainable.
- Reducing environmental impact: how can we minimise the environmental footprint of digital research activities, which often require extensive computing resources and data processing?
- Sustainable IT equipment: what strategies can be adopted to ensure that IT equipment used in research has sustainable life cycles, from design to disposal?
- Balancing performance and environmental impact: how can researchers balance the need for computing power with the goal of reducing environmental impact? What criteria should be considered beyond just performance?
Webinar 3: Promoting Ecological Sustainability in Research Systems
Tuesday 4 June 2024, 14.00–15.00 (CEST)
This last webinar addressed the actions needed to promote the ecological sustainability of research activities and the whole R&I systems. Acknowledging national differences, the speakers addressed the following questions:
- Promoting sustainability in research organisations: what steps can be taken to encourage and develop sustainability practices within research organisations?
- Integrating sustainability into research funding processes: how can sustainability considerations be integrated into the processes for funding research projects?
- Challenges for large research organisations: what are the specific challenges faced by large research facilities and infrastructure in achieving ecological sustainability?
- Collaborative actions: what collaborative efforts are needed to mobilise stakeholders and scale up existing sustainability initiatives in research?
Science Europe Framework for Greening Research
Greening Research is the process on which Science Europe has embarked to promote ecological sustainability as a fundamental value for research performing and funding organisations. We also support them to reduce the ecological impacts of their research activities, as part of our strategic priority to “strengthen the role and the contribution of science for tackling societal challenges” (see our Strategy Plan for 2021–2026).
How this can be achieved will be outlined in a ‘Greening Research Framework’, which will propose a roadmap to address this challenge. This Framework will follow up on the commitment in the Call to Action for the Net-Zero Transition, which was launched with partner organisations during COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.
It is foreseen to be published in Autumn 2024.
The Framework will offer a long-term strategy for greening research by providing a set of priorities and objectives for Science Europe Member Organisations and similar research organisations that want to engage with Greening Research. This open perspective aims to mobilise all research systems towards sustainability, acknowledging the need for urgent, collective climate actions.