Evaluating the carbon footprint of research projects prior to their submission

by Alexandre Santerne (IPAG, Grenoble Alpes University)

Date: Friday April 10, 2026 13:00-14:00 CEST

Abstract There is a growing practice in academic research to evaluate the carbon footprint of the institutes and projects. This is very important to monitor the climate impact of our activities and adopt a strategy to mitigate these emissions. However, these carbon footprint are used to be estimated a posteriori, hence once the carbon is emitted. In this talk, I will present an experiment that was organised over the entire astronomical community in France, to evaluate the carbon footprint of research projects, before they are submitted to funding agency. Nearly 200 projects were submitted and used a simple carbon calculator to help defining the project. I will present the statistics of this experiment and discuss the various options that are considered to include carbon footprint as part of the evaluation criteria in future calls.

Alexandre Santerne is a deputy astronomer working in Grenoble. He has expertise in detecting and characterising planets orbiting other stars. Over the past years, he also shifted part of his research activities towards sustainability of astronomy and beyond.