Our globally influential research and innovation community produces extraordinary insights and discoveries that address the world’s most pressing challenges. Research and innovation activities can also require energy-intensive equipment and travelling, which contributes significantly to the University’s carbon emissions and consumption of resources. The University is working to embed sustainability across all of its activities, including research practice.

This involves prioritising sustainable business travel and ensuring labs are furnished with the most resource-efficient equipment.    Doing research in a sustainable manner has myriad benefits for the University and all of its researchers. The Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability, in collaboration with the Edinburgh Research Office, will regularly be producing guidance, training and resources to support staff and academics with their grant applications and to understand sustainability in research practice.

Crafting your application: Guidance on UK funder policies on sustainable research (links out to the ERO website). Sustainable Research Practice SharePoint (opens SharePoint in a next tab). Sustainable Research Practice Training Course (links to course on People and Money).

In April 2024, the University signed the “Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice”. ES Concordat Signatory - The University of Edinburgh - 25 April 2024 (30.59 KB PDF) The aim of the Concordat is to ensure research and innovation continues to play a critical part in understanding how our planet is changing, while helping the sector to act responsibly to protect and promote our environment.