Call for Entries: EMBO Lab Sustainability Award

Benefits

• The award will recognize pioneers of environmental sustainability in life science research and provide opportunities for dissemination and expansion of the winning initiative. It offers a representative of an initiative the opportunity to present their project and activities at scientific events, including those for the EMBO communities.

Funding Information

• In addition, the winning project will be supported with a grant of 10,000 euros.

Eligible Projects

• Directly address the environmental impact of life science research, e.g. energy consumption or plastic recycling in the lab; development of certification programmes, standards, measurement tools or funding schemes to reduce a lab’s environmental footprint
• Directly address the environmental impact of life science labs through research, e.g. development of new lab protocols with reduced environmental impact; studies investigating use, re-use and recycling of lab utensils
• Are non-profit projects, e.g. from grassroots or top-down green lab initiatives and networks based in universities, research institutions or other non-profit organizations.

Ineligible Projects

• May indirectly affect the environmental impact of life science research, e.g. projects with focus on the construction sector or green office projects
• May indirectly affect the environmental impact of life science labs through research, e.g. research on “plastic-eating” bacteria
• Are for-profit projects, e.g. business projects with the intention of making a profit or commercial development.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applications are open to individuals working in or associated with the life sciences in any of the EMBC Member States and EMBO / EMBC global partners.
• Applicants must represent a group initiative, defined as a collaborative entity comprising at least three individuals. Groups can include research labs, departments, multi-lab collaborations or consortia.
• Applicants must be associated with a university, research institution or other non-profit organization.
• The call for applications is open to individuals at any career stage and in a variety of roles.
• Applicants must represent a project or initiative that is within the scope of the award.
• The award is intended for a wide range of projects and initiatives aimed at contributing to the development of sustainable wet and dry labs with a focus on their environmental impact.
• The scope of the project or initiative – from here “project” will mean both – may be at the level of the individual laboratory or much wider, given the systemic nature of the problem.
• For example, the selected project may involve collaborative research leading to new interventions; it may have implemented best practices to reduce a lab’s environmental impact; changed current regulations; or it may have focused on outreach, networking, community development, sharing of best practices and behaviour change.

Selection Criteria

• All eligible applications are evaluated by the Lab Sustainability Award Advisory Board in line with the UN 2030 Agenda using the following criteria:
  • Direct and indirect longitudinal impact of the project on the environment, institutional culture and community, including opportunities for expansion and scale-up
  • Diversity of stakeholder groups involved in or affected by the project
  • Creative and visionary thinking that offers new perspectives with a particular sensitivity to the systemic aspects of the topic.

For more information, visit EMBO.