Submitted by sjc313 on Thu, 09/10/2025 - 08:13
An important environmentally sustainable health policy report has just been published by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine. The goal of the ‘For people, for planet’ policy report is to improve the environmental sustainability of health research in the UK and the US.
Our CEU/PHPC colleagues Dr Loïc Lannelongue and Prof. Michael Inouye’s Green Algorithms Initiative was cited as a leading example of quantitative approaches in computational research in the report. The Green Algorithms tools allow researchers to understand the environmental impacts of their computational work.
Speaking on behalf of the Green Algorithms team, Prof. Inouye said that quantification fosters personal responsibility within the computational research community, as well as motivating the organisational responsibility needed for sustained systemic change.
The report is the work of 16 interdisciplinary future research leaders from the UK and US who participated in a joint policy initiative convened by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the US National Academy of Medicine. The sector’s sizeable carbon footprint – from energy-intensive laboratories to complex international clinical trials – risks eroding the very health outcomes it strives to advance. The report highlights key themes and areas of action for the health research sector:
- Adopt and refine shared metrics, tools and methodologies for all research activities – including digital and AI-driven methods – to ensure transparent, comparable reporting.
- Embed sustainability requirements incrementally in funding, regulatory and publication processes, pairing them with accessible guidance and financial support.
- Invest in people and infrastructure, prioritising training, accreditation schemes and green facilities that can be scaled up across diverse research settings.
- Foster international collaboration and data sharing, recognising that climate change knows no borders and that solutions developed in one context can benefit man