The Pentland Centre is hosting a seminar on Incorporating sustainability into research practice: Gaining insight from different perspectives.

Factors such as unsecure or controversial supply chains, precarious employment contracts and funding, unchecked use of energy and water consumption, and production of waste can put research at risk of contributing to/or being impacted by environmental, social and economic issues. How can we mitigate the risk for research practice by considering our undertaking through a sustainability lens (environmental, social, economic)?

Georgiana Allison and Valerie Seymour will lead a reflection session for participants to share experiences and perspectives, and identify new directions, for incorporating sustainability in research projects and activities. This session will feature activities adapted from a new institution training for researchers, which focuses on incorporating environmental sustainability into research practice.

Suggested pre/post reading:

1. “Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice” (https://wellcome.org/about-us/positions-and-statements/environmental-sustainability-concordat).
2. Ligozat AL, Névéol A, Daly B, Frenoux E., “Ten simple rules to make your research more sustainable”, PLoS Comput Biol.,16(9), 2020. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008148.

NB: The seminar runs from 14:00-15:00 in BLN- Bowland North Seminar Room 6 and on Teams. 

Open to LU staff and students - registration required. 

Please register below - registrations close Tues 25 Nov 2025. Please contact pentlandcentre@lancaster.ac.uk for queries re booking after that date.

Dr Valerie Seymour is an Education Fellow for the “Reimagining research practices: towards a sustainable, ethical and inclusive future” project at Lancaster University. She previously held both teaching and research focused roles in the Chemistry Department at Lancaster University. She combines experience and insight from these roles in her current role supporting the development of research students and staff.

Dr Georgiana Allison is Head of Sustainability for Lancaster University. Before joining Lancaster in 2023, Georgiana was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Leeds. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, a Fellow of Advance HE, and a Chartered Environmentalist.

Health & Safety and access information:

• In order to safeguard everyone's health, if you test positive for Covid-19 before the event, or are feeling unwell in any way, please don't attend (and please let us know).
• The room is on the ground floor, flat, wheelchair accessible and has an induction loop. There is a wheelchair accessible toilet nearby.
• Accessible parking is located on Bowland Avenue E and John Creed Avenue.

Find out more about the Pentland Centre on our website