Whilst clinical trials are critical to identifying effective and safe treatments, they also have a significant environmental impact. Despite the first publication of a trial’s carbon footprint 16 years ago, there has been little action to consciously reduce carbon consumption of clinical trials, while the urgency of the threat from the climate crisis has increased exponentially.
Approximately 38,000 new trials were registered globally on Clinicaltrials.gov in 2022, with estimated carbon footprints of ~80 to over 2000 tonnes CO2 for a single trial. Clearly, clinical trials are an important but underexplored area to target for decarbonisation, whilst protecting health.
A collaboration led by Professor Paula Williamson, University of Liverpool and Lisa Fox and Jess Griffiths, the Institute of Cancer Research, supported through NIHR funding, has brought renewed activity and interest in this area. They have established the Greener Trials group within the existing MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership to facilitate the consideration and uptake of more responsible research practice in trials. This multi-disciplinary group aims to develop and disseminate greener research practices and facilitate collaboration between a diverse community of stakeholders to set the research agenda and help drive the paradigm shift to lower carbon clinical trials.
More details are available at: http://www.methodologyhubs.mrc.ac.uk/about/working-groups/trial-conductwg/.
The group will develop the tools required to facilitate lower carbon clinical trials, including an online, publicly available, free eco-design tool for non-commercial research. They will collate, curate and analyse accumulating carbon footprinting data from trialists and funders to identify common hotspots in clinical trial patient pathways. They will undertake research to reduce known hotspots, e.g. trial-specific patient assessments and data collection methods, remote site management and monitoring, Clinical Trials Unit operations, running trials through routine care, and decentralised trials.
The vision of the Greener Trials group is to work with all stakeholders involved in designing and delivering trials in health and social care in the UK to identify and enact ways to reduce the footprint of trials whilst protecting health. This interdisciplinary group comprises a diverse combination of operational and methodological trialists, public members, sociologists, medical ethicists, behavioural scientists, NHS professionals, regulators and industry partners.
Members of the Greener Trials group have developed the first iteration of a method and guidance for carbon footprinting of publicly funded clinical trials: (doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2936937/v1).
