The Faculty of Natural Sciences is at the forefront of addressing the world’s most critical challenges. Our research spans multiple disciplines that address the critical challenges we face in this space, with research and policy focused on understanding, monitoring, predicting and managing the environment and its sustainability. Our scope ranges from local ecosystems to the global biosphere, and includes the overarching societal challenges posed by climate change, food production, chemical pollution, and transport.
Sustainable Labs
FoNS is dedicated to lab sustainability, implementing energy-efficient practices, reducing resource consumption, and fostering low-impact, environmentally responsible research environments. Labs within FoNS are encouraged to obtain sustainable lab certifications such as LEAF or My Green Lab.
Chemistry: at present, Chemistry have achieved 5 Gold, 5 Silver and 7 Bronze award labs.
Life Sciences: a programme of 17 certifications to cover the whole department has been organised with certification drive starting at the end of February 2025, led by Academic Lead for Sustainability Dr Andrea Fantuzzi and Allison Hunter. Crisanti Lab, led by Carla Siniscalchi already trialled the web app version and achieved a magnificent Gold award.
The Network of Excellence in Air Quality (NExAir) collaborates across disciplines to deliver new insights and identify the next big frontiers in air quality research. NExAir also act as a point of contact and facilitate engagement with civil society, policymakers and the media.
The Behaviour Change in Energy and Environment Policy Network (BEEP) brings together Imperial College London’s wide-ranging expertise on behaviour change on topics as diverse as low carbon lifestyles, pro-environmental attitudes and behaviour of individuals and businesses, public engagement, demand-side flexibility, customer-centred energy business models, technology adoption and use patterns, travel behaviour, organisational behaviour, adoption of resource management and biodiversity conservation initiatives.
Department of Chemistry
The partnership on Innovative Continuous Manufacturing of Industrial Chemicals (IConIC) is led by BASF and also includes Almac, AM Technology, CPI, METTLER TOLEDO Autochem, Siemens, and Sterling Pharma Solutions. These organisations and the department have pooled their expertise to advance flow chemistry, a production technique in which the required reactions take place in continuous operation rather than in batches.
Department of Life Sciences
The Georgina Mace Centre for the Living Planetbrings together a multidisciplinary group of researchers to tackle some of the greatest environmental challenges. The Centre aims to serve as an international hub to initiate and bring together leaders in fields such as the natural and social sciences, engineering and economics with policy makers and other stakeholders, to work on integrated research programmes that have real-time impacts on conservation and the environment.
The Leverhulme Centre for the Holobiont focuses on exploring the relationships between microbes and their hosts, leveraging new sequencing technologies and experimental methods. Advances in 'omics' research have unintentionally captured microbial data, providing unique insights into these associations. The Centre collaborates with leading institutions and actively seeks new partners and opportunities for growth.
Department of Mathematics
The newly established MFC CDT is supporting PhD projects on the Mathematics for our future climate, detailed project descriptions are available on the MFC CDT site.
Networks and Institutes
The Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment is Imperial College London's hub for climate change and the environment, and one of Imperial's sevenGlobal Institutesestablished to promote inter-disciplinary working and to meet some of the greatest challenges faced by society. We drive forward discovery, convert innovations into applications, train future leaders and communicate academic knowledge to businesses, industry and policymakers to help shape their decisions. In 2007, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment made the visionary decision to support an Institute at Imperial to provide a vital global centre of excellence for research and education on climate change. Today, the Grantham Institute is established as a leading authority on climate and environmental science.
AGRI-net fosters collaborations between leading chemical biology and agriscience research communities drawn from academia, and industry in partnership with policymakers to develop high-impact multidisciplinary research targeted at one of the world's grand challenges - crop sustainability.
The Centre for Translational Nutrition and Food Researchbrings together world leading research teams across Imperial College’s Faculties. Using multi-disciplinary approaches and cutting edge techniques the Centre extends the strength and capability of the research base to respond to key emerging global challenges in Nutrition, Food and Health. The Centre works extensively with industry and supports the development of high calibre group leaders in food and nutrition through the recruitment and support of young lecturers and research studentships.
