Speakers
Description
A sustainable research computing culture is vital to ensure research institutions can meet their sustainability aims while supporting ever-increasing demands for computational capacity driven by modern research practices. Currently, challenges in three areas make it difficult for sustainability practices to become fully embedded within universities and for a sustainable, responsible research computing environment to develop.
The first is a lack of genuine buy‑in from staff and students. Without this shared commitment and a supportive community, implementing effective policies and practices becomes significantly more challenging.
Secondly, awareness of IT sustainability issues remains limited across much of the research landscape. Education and training to develop skills in sustainable computing is a key requirement for making low‑impact digital practices routine rather than exceptional.
The third challenge is the lack of integration into organisational strategy. Strong, coordinated advocacy is required to shift perceptions, influence decision‑making, and establish sustainability as “business as usual”.
This talk and poster will outline work underway at Imperial College London - supported by Research England research culture funding - to foster a sustainable institutional research computing culture and create models that can be adopted elsewhere. Building on the above observations, our approach centres on three pillars:
Community: Building community through engagement and events, to develop shared understanding among researchers and technical professionals of sustainable computing practices, particularly as AI and high‑performance computing become increasingly prominent.
Education: This pillar is anchored in the development of a new green and sustainable computing training course. Building on open educational resources, it offers core knowledge and best practices, supports progress toward Green DiSC certification, and provides a resource for cultural change.
Advocacy: Involves working with institutional leaders and sustainability teams to highlight practical improvements, large and small, and includes partnering with an artist to develop visual outputs that inspire broader engagement with sustainable IT.