9 January 2026
We launched our Sustainability Initiative to encourage and support ideas that enable biologists to collaborate productively whilst minimising their impact on the environment. We are proud that our grants have supported hundreds of events so far, connecting biologists from all around the world with a lower impact on the environment.
One of the most sustainable actions you can take for your event is to organise it entirely remotely. In this blog, we interviewed Drenka Trivanovic, Organising Committee Chair of The Bone Marrow Adiposity Society (BMAS) 2025 Virtual Summer School, who remotely organised the event with support from our Fund for Innovations in Sustainable Conferencing. This event successfully brought people together while reducing CO₂ emissions and costs. Drenka shared her experience with us.
How did the grant enable you to improve the sustainability of your event?
The funding obtained from the grant was used to cover the cost of the virtual meeting: programme advertising, IT platform and live streaming (production and preparation). By organising a virtual international meeting, we reduced greenhouse gas emissions and costs associated with the travel and accommodation of participants, speakers and support staff involved in the event. The BMAS Summer School virtual event enabled people to interact in an online environment rather than meeting in a physical location.
Thus, the virtual meeting allowed attendees and speakers to participate (at no cost) from all over the world, ensuring geographical and gender diversity. With every event, the BMAS increases the number of memberships, allowing young researchers to be part of the Next Generation BMAS (Next Gen BMAS) Committee.
Next Gen BMAS aims to promote the education and training of early-stage investigators (basic researchers and clinician scientists) in the field of bone marrow adiposity. Members involved in the future organisation of the BMAS conference will contribute not only to the quality of the conferences but also to the professional development of young researchers.
Based on your experience, what, if anything, might you do differently to improve sustainability? Do you have any advice for other event organisers?
The regulation of recording sharing needs to be well-defined in advance. There is a general lack of storage capacity, and saving large files can be problematic. Thus, using online cloud storage is indispensable. Additionally, some participants experienced difficulties during video recording and screen sharing during the poster presentation session. We believe that upgrading this presentation format is imperative.
Would you encourage other event organisers to apply for a Sustainable Conferencing Grant?
I would encourage other event organisers to apply for a Sustainable Conferencing Grant. It provides valuable support to implement environmentally friendly practices, improve event efficiency and promote sustainability within the scientific community. All of these align with the “greening effort”. Additionally, virtual events significantly reduce costs for both organisers and attendees while preserving the budget for awards. Certainly, the quality of the programme is paramount, and therefore the selection of distinguished experts is essential.
We are excited to see how our grants help biologists from all around the world come together and conserve our environment. Learn more about our Sustainability grants and the resources we have available.
