Unique interactive report reveals nature and extent of fossil fuel industry influence in Dutch higher education
Ties between the fossil fuel industry and Dutch universities threaten academic freedom and support the fossil lobby, according to a three-year investigation of the Dutch Mapping Fossil Ties Coalition based on FOI documents and decentralised research. The Mapping Fossil Ties Coalition presents the 68 most striking cases in an interactive report and a visualisation of 42 key actors, showing structural connections between fossil-fuel companies and Dutch universities.
The interactive report invites further investigation: readers can explore fossil ties by university, fossil organization, type of connection, theme, or independently via a search function. From analysing more than 7,000 pages of FOI documents, five themes stand out:
- Dutch research programs and projects growingly emphasize fossil “solutions” like CCS and hydrogen. This shift aligns closely with lobbying efforts of major oil and gas companies in the Netherlands and Brussels to position these technologies as key pillars of climate policy.
- In the 10 years after the Paris Agreement, universities remain involved in research and education directly related to fossil fuel extraction. Technical universities in particular continue to receive funding for research into liquified natural gas – a fossil fuel.
- Restrictions on academic freedom: through confidentiality clauses, veto rights, and the transfer of intellectual property, control is exercised over research processes and outcomes, limiting critical analysis of corporate activities.
- At the same time, universities are used as platforms for fossil promotional activities; for example, organizing PR and private networking events for Saudi Aramco (Leiden, Maastricht) or writing policy reports with industrial partners (Utrecht).
- Hiring employees from the fossil fuel industry leads to conflicts of interest, such as research into health damage caused by fossil fuels being conducted by scientists who are part of the lobby against regulating those fuels.
“An oil executive as chair of the Arctic research committee? A gag clause whereby researchers may not say anything that might harm the reputation of the fossil industry? The bands between universities and the fossil fuel industry run deep. Universities that take their role in society seriously must shine a light on these relationships and take action.” Dr. Guus Dix (University of Twente)
“This important research reveals for the first time how Dutch universities contribute to maintaining the power of major fossil fuel companies. It is widely known that these companies have engaged in climate obstruction for decades, for example by undermining climate science, delaying climate policy, and greenwashing themselves. And universities, intentionally or not, keep on contributing to this.” Dr. ir. Martijn Duineveld (Wageningen University)
Toegang
- Interactive report: https://mappingfossilties.org/report/
- Visualisation: https://visualisation.mappingfossilties.org
- Full database: www.mappingfossilties.org/database
- Media overview academic-fossil ties: www.mappingfossilties.org/news
Do your own research
The interactive report of the Mapping Fossil Ties Coalition gives journalists and other interested parties direct access to the 68 most notable cases of fossil-involvement in Dutch academia since the Paris Agreement. The report explains five risks of fossil involvement that emerge from the analysis.
In addition to the interactive report, a visualization provides insight into professors and administrators with fossil ties, as well as fossil company employees who hold positions at Dutch academic institutions.
For the first time, the extent and nature of fossil collaborations in the Dutch academic world have been mapped. The database is based on nearly three years of research using online searches and web archives, decentralized research at universities, online public databases, transparency reports from universities, and more than 7,000 pages of documents in response to freedom of information (FOI) requests, including contracts and agreements on intellectual property, funding, and publication.
Despite the scope of the report, the Mapping Fossil Ties coalition emphasizes that it is not complete: the research has been conducted in a decentralized manner with limited capacity, including through “searchathons” in which students, university employees, and other volunteers examined Woo documents. More insights and cases remain to be discovered in the underlying documents and through additional research. The interactive report contains links to all materials and thus forms a solid basis for journalists and researchers to investigate further.
Context
Since 2023, Dutch universities have begun publishing lists of externally funded professors, partly in response to reporting in the Financieele Dagblad and Nieuwsuur and questions from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. Transparency regarding external research funding, however, still lags. As a result, the scope and nature of agreements between universities and fossil companies remained largely unknown.
Since late 2022, several actions have taken place at Dutch universities in which students and staff have called on their institutions to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry. In 2023, a coalition formed to map these ties, coordinated by the research bureau Solid Sustainability Research. The online database now contains more than 500 verified connections. The interactive report and visualization constitute a subset of these.