Creating a New Reality: A Sustainable Digital Transformation
Location
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, OX1 3PU
Contact
netdrive@eng.ox.ac.ukDate & Time
Wednesday 22 Apr 2026 - Thursday 23 Apr 2026
Availability
We are pleased to share details of the upcoming NetDRIVE meeting, “Creating a New Reality: A Sustainable Digital Transformation.”
Creating a New Reality: A Sustainable Digital Transformation
22-23 April 2026
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, OX1 3PU, Martin Wood Lecture Theatre
Registration has now closed.
This meeting is part of the NetDRIVE project, which focuses on delivering authoritative advice to UK Research and Innovation on sustainable digital research infrastructure. It will promote discussion on the shape, constraints, and opportunities of the emerging UK power supply, alongside broader questions of community leadership, scientific credibility, and digital transformation in support of net zero. Please see the delagate pack linked in the documents list below for detailed agenda and latest information.
Documents
- NetDRIVE Oxford meeting 2026 Delegate pack
- Essay on Offsetting: Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas Removals from the Atmosphere-
Implications for Sustainable Research Computing - Netdrive Community Projects Oxford Meeting April 2026
Keynote speakers will include:
- Professor Myles Allen, Head of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics
- Dr. Susan Simon, Director of Capital and Estates and Chief Environmental Sustainability Officer at the Medical Research Council
- Harriet Wallace, Director Sustainability at Imperial College London
- Professor David Wallom, Associate Director – Innovation of the Oxford e-Research Centre
- David White, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Oxford University
Meeting objectives
• Practical approaches to community leadership and scientific credibility in defining and implementing net zero
• Understanding the shape, constraints, and opportunities of the emerging UK power supply
• Engaging across generations to help guide the digital transformation
Expected outputs
• Recommendations on a framework for defining and implementing net zero, including approaches to balancing unavoidable emissions. The aim is not to re-review technical options, but to summarise available and emerging approaches and how these may inform infrastructure procurement policy.
• Draft recommendations on the use of flexible approaches to siting and operating infrastructure to reduce carbon footprint and costs.
• Recommendations for enhancing opportunities for postdoctoral researchers to engage in the development of sustainable digital research infrastructure. Poster sessions will form part of the programme (details to follow).
Poster sessions will form part of the programme, including presentations from selected abstracts, with a prize awarded for the best poster. Details of the call for posters can be found here, but the call has now closed.
We are running the meeting primarily as an in-person event but we are making selected plenary sessions and breakout discussion available online to people who cannot join in-person.
FAQ
Please see our list of responses to Frequently asked questions about thie event