York scientists design new educational website for sustainable pharmaceuticals
Posted on Monday 2 February 2026
The website is freely available with dedicated sections for healthcare professionals, research scientists, and the public. It features interactive content and videos made by experts to engage users and facilitate learning across different experience levels. There is an emphasis on ‘benign by design’ drug development and environmental risk assessment. The latest chemistry techniques are described, including flow chemistry and machine learning for reaction optimisation. There are also dedicated sections for Green Chemistry, Planetary Boundaries, Life Cycle Assessment, Quality Control and other aspects of the pharmaceutical value chain.
Professor Avtar Matharu from the University of York who led the education work package says, "The creation of the Sustainable Pharmaceuticals: Learning and Advanced Science Hub (SPLASH) is a culmination of two years of amazing work first initiated by Marlen Moreno and then completed by Dr James Sherwood. SPLASH is highly informative, engaging and an educational repository for all stakeholders within healthcare. It's a unique one-stop educational resource."
Professor Chris Stevens of Ghent University, who leads the TransPharm project, added "Research is more valuable when it reaches all its stakeholders, and is able to explain (and hopefully convince) them of the added value. Developing new and more green pharmaceuticals and dealing with them in a more sustainable way will help to support the required paradigm shift in the pharmaceutical and chemical field. The outreach work of the TransPharm project is intended to inform the broad public and researchers of the efforts being performed in this challenging field."
TransPharm is a Horizon Europe project dedicated to a competitive European pharmaceutical industry which can ensure the timely delivery of sustainable therapeutics. The www.sustainablepharmaceuticals.eu website is hosted by the ‘Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Pharmaceutical Engineering and manufacturing’ (CESPE) at Ghent University.