Universities & fossil fuel industry

How deep are the fossil fuel industry’s roots in UK universities? Amid a growing movement for academic transparency and accountability, Solid Sustainability Research is inviting students and staff across the UK to find out and take part in an international research effort. ~~~ UPDATE: due to popular demand we will run an online session (date and time TBD) covering most… Read More »UK workshops: Let’s investigate your university’s fossil ties together!

🎓 Learn how academia is used to delay and distort climate action and policy 🔍 Get involved with mapping fossil ties of your university with Solid Sustainability Research & Climate Accountability Lab (University of Miami) ✊🏽 Get active in the campaigns and actions of People and Planet and the Education Climate Coalition to counter the industry’s influence Pick the day… Read More »Webinar: What is the fossil fuel industry doing at my university?

We’re excited to share our new publication with researchers from Universiteit Leiden, which explores the shifting attitude towards academic collaborations between universities and the tobacco industry in the Netherlands—and the lessons it offers for current discussions about fossil fuel ties. Our study reveals that despite the widespread view that collaborations with the tobacco industry are ‘not done’, there is still… Read More »Academic Collaborations and Public Health: Lessons from Dutch Universities’ Tobacco Industry Partnerships for Fossil Fuel Ties

Building on our research and insights from ongoing discussions about university partnerships with the fossil fuel industry, we, alongside Guus Dix (University of Twente) and Gerrit Schaafsma (Leiden University), have developed a document (see also below) designed for university commissions tasked with evaluating potential collaborations with the fossil fuel sector. This document (first version: September 2024, latest version: April 2025)… Read More »Evaluating academic collaborations with fossil fuel industry: criteria & risk assessment

September 2, 2024 – Higher Education Press Agency (Olmo Linthorst) Utrecht University had pledged not to collaborate with the fossil fuel industry. However, a Utrecht professor is doing so again, raising eyebrows: Is the university ignoring its own rules? This article appeared in several university magazines, we contributed content to it based on our research. “It seems that the university… Read More »Utrecht University: collaboration with BP does not conflict with our climate goals

In a freedom of information request to Maastricht University, we received an exchange of letters between the university and aramco. We wrote about it here in ScienceGuide. A representative of the university offers Aramco the choice of 4 proposals to fund (of which 3 were proposals for externally funded professorships). One of them was about urban de-growth (specifically relevant to… Read More »How do cooperations with fossil fuel companies influence the direction of research at universities?