Environmentally Sustainable HeAlth REsearch (SHARE)
SHARE Reflections
SHARE Reflections is a series of short blogs capturing real conversations about sustainability in research, where environmental ideals intersect with ethical concerns, inequalities and practical constraints.
Impact
This research moves beyond 'tool solutionism’ to develop more ethical, reflexive and context-sensitive sustainable practices in health research. By engaging with diverse research communities, we will co-design context-sensitive tools that reduce the environmental impact of health research that:
- are fair and practical;
- incorporate local knowledge and values of diverse geographical contexts;
- avoid reinforcing power imbalances between research communities in high and low-resource settings.
Project duration
1 May 2025 - 30 April 2028
SHARE (environmentally Sustainable HeAlth REsearch) is an international research community exploring how health research can be conducted such that its environmental impacts are considered and addressed in ways that are fair and meaningful in different cultures and geographies.
While health research plays a vital role in improving lives, its environmental impacts include, for example, carbon emissions from energy to run laboratories; laboratory waste in the form of single use plastics and the disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous chemicals; carbon emissions from energy associated with running AI algorithms; and transport emissions associated with clinical trials.
Wellcome-funded, SHARE brings together researchers from around the world to study how we can reduce these impacts in ways that reflect local realities, values, and priorities.
To do this, SHARE is exploring the growing number of tools that have been developed to help researchers reduce their environmental impact: carbon calculators, green lab guidelines, certification systems, among others. These tools are primarily developed in the Global North. Through interviews, workshops, and creative methods like photovoice, we’re carrying out empirical research to understand how these tools are used and experienced by researchers in diverse settings in the UK, Kenya, Ghana, India, and Brazil.
At the same time, SHARE is developing a conceptual framework to guide how sustainability can be understood and practised in ways that are just, reflexive, and context-sensitive, and in a way that moves beyond tool-solutionism.
SHARE launch meeting
In May 2025, we began the SHARE project with a two-part series of kickoff meetings alongside our collaborative, international research team. The meeting on 21 May set out with an introduction to the vision of the project, including our ways of working and Community of Practice (which sits at the heart of our approach). On 22 May, we focused on the governance structure for the project, the empirical work package, as well as mapping out our impact strategy.
Decolonising the planning of an environmental health study
Dr Gabrielle (Gabby) Samuel presented the SHARE project as a case study for de-colonial qualitative health research to a group of master's students at National Taiwan University, during her visit in May 2025. Gabby emphasised centering local voices and challenging traditional power dynamics in research. Students were incredibly engaged with conversations, sparking discussions on decolonising methodologies, community participation, and ethical considerations in global health. Gabby was told these discussions were continued long after the presentation ended, and into the seminar.
Climate justice: a new requirement for responsible research
Professor Federica Lucivero chaired a panel called Climate justice: a new requirement for responsible research? For the 'Right here Right now' series at Oxford University. The panel critically reflected on existing initiatives to address environmental considerations in the research ecosystem and explore opportunities and challenges. Dr Gabrielle (Gabby) Samuel was a panel member, along with representatives from the European Commission, where she discussed the SHARE project as well as the wider ethical and social issues associated with bringing environmental considerations into health research.
Seminar for the Erasmus Medical Center
In June 2025, Dr Gabrielle (Gabby) Samuel was invited as an international speaker to present the SHARE project for the Medical Ethics, Philosophy & History of Medicine Department seminar at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The presentation presented the premise of the SHARE project, including the need to consider ethical and social issues associated with the implementation of tools to help address the environmental harms of health research, including issues associated with fairness, equity, inclusiveness and reflexivity.