On May 23, we held our annual symposium focused on integrating sustainability into healthcare research. Chairs Wouter Hehenkamp and Berber Kapitein organized an enlightening program aimed at showing PhD students and senior researchers how to incorporate sustainable practices across various research fields.
 

Insights from keynote speakers

The symposium kicked off with a keynote from Amsterdam UMC visiting professor Hugh Montgomery, who highlighted the urgent need for sustainability in healthcare. Anneke Kwee discussed the importance of embedding appropriate care in research for sustainable healthcare. Aram de Haas shared strategies for making laboratories more sustainable, including the energy-saving Freezer Challenge. Environmental scientist Lynn Snijder introduced tools like the 'Promeza tool' for measuring environmental impact, while Cristina Richie provided an ethical perspective on healthcare's role in the climate crisis.

Panel discussions and grant announcements

The event concluded with a panel discussion where participants explored practical ways to integrate sustainability into their research. An exciting highlight was the announcement of the AR&D sustainability grant, offering three types of grants to support sustainable research initiatives. Additionally, a grant ceremony was held for all winners of the AR&D Travel Grant 2024-2025 and the winners of the AR&D Seed Funding Grant 2024. Chairs Hehenkamp and Kapitein expressed their satisfaction with the event, emphasizing the practical tools and inspiration provided to attendees via a digital goodiebag.

AR&D Travel Grant (2024-2025) - Winners

In this year’s travel grant round, we were looking for applications that kept sustainability in mind, meaning that when travel could not be done in the most sustainable way, we were looking for thorough statements as to why the conference or working visit was indispensable. In this way, we encouraged researchers to make more sustainable choices.
 
Below are all the winners. Congratulations!

AR&D Seed Funding Grant (2024) - Winners

We are delighted to reveal the recipients of the AR&D Seed Funding Grant 2024. Congratulations!!This grant encourages to take new ideas or current research lines to the next level, or to start new collaborations, or the beginning of new sample or data collections. The research topics of the awarded grants can be found here. Congratulations!

Resources and contact information

For more information on making your lab more sustainable or calculating the environmental impact of your research activities, contact duurzaamheid@amsterdamumc.nl or visit the UCL website. 
 
Photo credits: Martijn Gijsbertsen