Sustainability

Research grant applications

Advice for embedding sustainability in your research grant applications.

Funders are increasingly concerned about some of the negative impacts of research practices on the environment and society and are looking for grant recipients to demonstrate their good practice in this area.

UK Research and Innovation

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published their sustainability strategy in 2020, which states that grant recipients from 2024 will be asked about sustainability.

This is an evolving situation currently so please contact us for advice on how to include sustainability in your grant application.

In the future, we may develop a bespoke proforma or set of answers to FAQs for sustainability.

UKRI Environmental Sustainability Strategy [external website]

Wellcome Trust

Within their policy, the Wellcome Trust allow for carbon offsetting costs associated with travel to be included in project budgets.

They expect the people they fund to:

  • minimise the number of journeys taken by using alternatives where possible (for example video conferencing)
  • choose travel that has a lower carbon impact, where practical
  • offset the carbon emissions of journeys they do make.

Wellcome Trust carbon offset policy for travel [external website]

If you are unsure how to calculate the cost of these offsets, please see the guidance below.

Sustainable labs

Visit our sustainable labs page for practical advice on best practice in laboratories.

Sustainable labs

 

General enquiries

  • Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Contact details

Address

Street

Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability
The Boilerhouse
High School Yards

City
Edinburgh
Post Code
EH1 1LT