Dr. Athanasios Polyportis will lead GENAIRE, a 12-month project funded by the KIN Sustainable Science Fund, together with Prof. Dr. Yijing Wang and Associate Prof. Dr. Daniel Trottier. The project runs from July 2026 and will develop practical tools to help researchers assess, reduce and document the expected environmental impact of generative AI use in everyday research.
Generative AI is increasingly becoming part of everyday research, from literature searches and coding to research design and text production. As generative and agentic AI tools take on more complex research tasks, their sustainability implications become harder to ignore. Although their use can seem immaterial, it depends on data centres, networks and computing infrastructure that require energy. However, for many researchers, the environmental impact of generative AI remains difficult to observe, estimate or include in everyday research decisions.
GENAIRE: Generative AI in Research Workflows, Measuring and Reducing Environmental Impact addresses this challenge. GENAIRE will develop a practical, low-threshold method for assessing and reducing the expected environmental footprint of AI-supported research. The project will pilot a digital planning tool, a checklist, a Receipt and an ethics addendum. Together, these will help researchers decide when generative AI use is proportionate, identify lower-footprint options and document their choices for ethics review and data management planning.
The project will be co-designed with researchers, the chair of the Research Ethics Review Committee, ICT staff, sustainability staff and research support professionals. Outputs will be shared openly so that other higher education institutions can adapt and reuse them.
- Researcher
