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Green DiSC: Helping researchers make computational research more sustainable

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Green DiSC: Helping researchers make computational research more sustainable

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Kirsty Pringle

Kirsty Pringle

Project Manager

Posted on 3 September 2025

Estimated read time: 4 min
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Green DiSC: Helping researchers make computational research more sustainable

GreenDiSC logo

The Software Sustainability Institute is delighted to announce that the first Bronze Awards from the Green DiSC certification scheme have been awarded.

Six teams from across the UK and Europe successfully completed the Bronze level certification:

  • Four research groups were recognised for embedding sustainability in their computational practices.
  • Two support teams were celebrated for enabling sustainable research across their organisations.

Together, their work spans fields from cancer research and genomics to data science, showing that computational sustainability is possible across disciplines. And this is only the beginning: another 25 organisations are currently registered and working towards certification.

“It is wonderful to see the first round of certified teams after more than two years developing and testing Green DiSC. It is inspiring to see the research community stepping up and signalling that we cannot afford to ignore the environmental impacts of our digital research.”

— Dr Loïc Lannelongue, Green DiSC Lead, SSI Fellow and Senior Researcher at the University of Cambridge

Bronze Certification awardees

What is Green DiSC?

The Green DiSC (Green Digital Sustainability Certification) was developed to help researchers reduce the environmental impact of their work. It provides a framework that guides both research groups and central sustainability teams in adopting practices that lower the footprint of digital and computational research.

While laboratory certification schemes have long supported lab-based researchers in reducing their environmental impacts, no equivalent has existed for computational research. The need for such a scheme is becoming increasingly urgent, as high performance computing and AI are now central to modern research but also carry significant energy demands.

Green DiSC is the first free and open-access certification scheme for research sustainability. By offering a roadmap for sustainable practice, it empowers researchers and organisations to take action.

“Digital research has a growing environmental footprint, but there’s not a lot of guidance on how to reduce it. The Green DiSC certification gives researchers clear, practical steps to improve the sustainability of their work.”

— Dr Kirsty Pringle, Project Manager, Software Sustainability Institute

Green DiSC was developed by SSI Fellow Dr Loïc Lannelongue as part of his Fellowship. 

From the start it was clear to us that Green DiSC should be an interdisciplinary cross-institutions initiative, and we looked for an organisation to host the scheme that wasn’t just one university. The SSI, with its ingrained commitment to better research computing and open access, was the ideal place for Green DiSC to land and reinforced the independence and legitimacy of the framework. Beyond this, SSI staff has been involved in the early days of Green DiSC, contributing to shaping and promoting the scheme as it is today. From building the webpage to designing the logo, the SSI’s support has been invaluable.

— Dr Loïc Lannelongue, Green DiSC Lead, SSI Fellow and Senior Researcher at the University of Cambridge

Next deadline

The next deadline to apply for certification is 19 November 2025.

Links & contacts

  • Green DiSC Lead – Dr Loïc Lannelongue: loic@greendisc.org
  • General enquiries: info@greendisc.org
  • Software Sustainability Institute (SSI): info@software.ac.uk

 

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