Assessing the carbon footprint of French academic clinical trials using the NIHR method.

Abstract

This project aimed to assess the applicability of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) tool to French academic studies and identify the carbon hotspots, with a view to discussing ways of mitigating their environmental impact. Retrospective analysis. A completed single-centre phase I haematology trial TOCILAM (NCT04547062) and a completed multicentre phase III in intensive care REMICRUSH (NCT03960801). TOCILAM had a total number of 12 participants and REMICRUSH had a total number of 1150 participants. Total carbon emissions from each trial and the hotspots of those emissions. The carbon footprint of the TOCILAM and REMICRUSH studies was estimated at 3.2 and 5.8 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, respectively. For these two studies, the hotspots were the Meetings and travel item followed by the clinical trial unit emissions. The NIHR tool is easily applicable to the context of French academic clinical studies. The total estimated carbon footprint of the two clinical trials was generally lower than what has been reported in the literature for academic studies. However, areas for improvement have been identified.