Changing behaviour to enable design and delivery of greener trials?

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Background to the project Fifteen years ago, the Sustainable Trials Study Group concluded that 'clinical trials contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.' and current estimates predict that the 350,000 trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov have a carbon usage of 27.5M tonnes. General recommendations targeting the reduction of carbon usage in research (NIHR Carbon Reduction Guidelines) were published in 2019 yet progress to decarbonise trials remains slow. Of the small number of studies that have explored carbon usage in clinical trials, factors such as trial team and participant related travel have been identified as key impacts. Of the sources of carbon usage across clinical trials many of these are linked to the role of human behaviour and rely on people (patients, clinicians, trial staff) performing actions (such as receiving or delivering a trial intervention, or attending a clinic). There are many influences on participants, trial staff, and clinicians' behaviours within clinical trials. These trial-related environmental behaviours are common across trial designs and clinical contexts often contextually dependent and amenable to change. Applying behavioural science to the problem of carbon usage in clinical trials offers critical, replicable, and generalisable insights for the clinical trials community.this studentship aims to address this knowledge gap by applying behavioural science to investigate the key challenges and opportunities for delivery of low carbon trials.what the studentship will encompass:this studentship aims to identify the challenges and opportunities for delivery of low carbon trials. Specifically, it will:1. determine which carbon 'hotspots' across the trial lifecycle (design, conduct, analysis, and reporting) can be considered as priority pro-environmental behaviours that are potentially amenable to change (literature review and re-analysis of process map)2. Identify key opportunities and challenges faced by trial teams in relation to pro-environmental behaviours related to trial design, conduct, analysis, and reporting (interviews/focus groups and survey)3. Develop pro-environmental behaviour change intervention(s) to target trial teams during the trial lifecycle and establish feasibility and acceptability (behaviour change intervention development and participatory approaches)4. Produce a 'how-to' guide for trial teams on how to develop and implement behavioural diagnostics and solutions for supporting low carbon trials.