Our plans for sustainable research
Making sure that research is environmentally and socially responsible is a key part of our ESG roadmap. Learn more about our plans.
Our core mission is to fund research to help save and improve the lives of people with heart and circulatory diseases. But we know that research needs to be more sustainable for the benefit of everyone.
The environmental impact of our research
Understanding and reducing the environmental impact of the research we fund is the sixth part of our roadmap to net zero by 2045. But many of the emissions associated with the research we fund are outside of our direct control.
That’s why we’re working with others across the sector to improve sustainability in the research and development sector. We have signed the voluntary Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice, which is led by the Wellcome Trust. Alongside other research funders and research institutions, we will be working to ensure research and innovation continues to drive new discoveries, while helping the sector to act responsibly to protect and promote our environment.
You can read more about what the Concordat means in practice on Wellcome’s website, which outlines our public commitment.
As well as this, we're committed to minimising the clinical trials we run which involve animal testing.
Equality, diversity and inclusion in our research
Alongside the environmental impact of our research, we’re also aiming to be make the research ecosystem more inclusive. This includes increasing the numbers of people from under-represented groups in the cardiovascular research workforce, through to making the research results more inclusive by ensuring a wider representation of people taking part in clinical trials and in the tissue samples used for research.