The new 'Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice' hosted by Wellcome was recently launched – see https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-work/environmental-sustainability-concordat.
Wellcome (see here) and Cancer Research UK (see here) have announced that, by the end of 2025, they will require researchers applying to the majority of their funding schemes to hold accreditation demonstrating the environmental sustainability of their laboratories.
- Cancer Research UK’s new Environmental Sustainability policy states that this requirement will be enforced for applicants submitting proposals to all relevant funding calls closing from 1 January 2026 onwards (with certain exclusions – see policy for further details of these).
- Wellcome’s new Environmental Sustainability policy states that laboratories should achieve the minimum level of accreditation by the end of 2025.
The accreditation requirements will apply to research conducted in wet labs such as biomedical, clinical and chemical laboratories, not to research which is solely desk-based or field-based.
In order to meet Wellcome and Cancer Research UK requirements, researchers can apply for sustainable lab accreditation via the University’s Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) programme – see https://sustainability.admin.ox.ac.uk/leaf – supported by the University’s Environmental Sustainability Team in Estates Services. University applications for LEAF accreditation are run on an annual cycle, with a May submission deadline.
Please note that Silver LEAF accreditation will be a mandatory requirement for applications to Cancer Research UK calls with final deadlines on or after 1 January 2026 (for any-two stage calls, first-stage deadlines may be in 2025). Wellcome expects laboratories to achieve Bronze accreditation by 1 January 2026.
Details of University laboratories which already hold LEAF accreditation are available at LEAF Award Winners | Sustainability (ox.ac.uk).
Those whose research is likely to be affected by these new requirements and whose laboratories do not yet have LEAF accreditation are now strongly encouraged to work with the University’s Environmental Sustainability (ES) Team to achieve this accreditation. This is essential for anyone considering applying for funding from Wellcome and/or Cancer Research UK from 2025 onwards.
The ES Team will be running a series of online seminars from July 2024 onwards, with further information about how to apply for LEAF accreditation.
The first seminars will be held on:
Thursday 25th July, 2-3pm
Tuesday 20th August, 10-11am
Wednesday 11th September, 1-2pm
For further information about applying for LEAF accreditation and to sign up for these webinars, please contact;
Charlotte Houghton, Carbon Reduction Manager, Environmental Sustainability Team.
email. charlotte.houghton@admin.ox.ac.uk
