Pakistani researchers from Government College University (GCU) Lahore and the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) have won a competitive £10,000 grant from the UK’s Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to establish Pakistan’s first Sustainable Chemistry Laboratory at GCU Lahore.
The project has been selected among only 23 initiatives worldwide under the RSC’s 2026 Sustainable Laboratories Grants programme.
The initiative is being led by Dr Muhammad Altaf, Associate Professor at GCU’s Institute of Chemical Sciences, and Hasan Yaqoob, a doctoral researcher at LUMS.
The laboratory will feature closed-loop solvent recovery and micro-distillation systems to allow chemicals to be purified and reused instead of being discarded.
The project will also promote the use of greener solvents in undergraduate teaching and provide certified safety and sustainability training for laboratory staff.
Dr Altaf said the project aims to address environmental impact and the waste of resources in conventional research laboratories.
He said the long-term goal is to develop an eco-friendly and efficient laboratory model that can be adopted by universities and research institutions across Pakistan.
The project has brought together researchers from several Pakistani and international institutions, including Queen Mary University of London, LUMS, GCU and the University of Education.