Researchers criticise fossil fuel industry's influence on universities

Over the past few years, activists and researchers at Dutch universities have requested documents to map the links between Dutch academia and the fossil fuel industry. The results are now available online.

Non-disclosure agreements, dual roles, and financial influence are just some of the things that characterise their relationship. All cases have been gathered on a website created by Solid Sustainability Research. Visitors can search by university or topic. The site also features a map showing the connections between companies and universities. The researchers have flagged four connections between Utrecht University and the fossil fuel industry as risky.

Some of the cases do not seem very serious, while others raise questions, such as the “oil man” chairing of a committee for scientific research into the polar regions within the Dutch Research Council (NWO). That man worked at Shell for 36 years, according to science sociologist Guus Dix, an assistant professor at the University of Twente who helped with the research.

Is this case striking to you?
Dix: “It is striking, yes. We encourage scientists to conduct research into the consequences of climate change for the polar regions. However, the chair of the committee has worked for the oil and gas industry for many years and still has a consultancy firm in this field.”

What else stood out to you?
"The contracts between universities and the fossil fuel industry sometimes contain confidentiality clauses. Sometimes, researchers are not even allowed to disclose that they are collaborating with a particular company, nor can they say anything that could damage the company's reputation. This restricts academic freedom because one can certainly say negative things about those companies."

You also report that TU Delft sells gas itself.
"Scientists doing geothermal research drill through several layers of the Earth to extract heat from the Earth's interior. They discovered gas while doing so, and they sell that. You could say that TU Delft is now a gas company."

Could they have done otherwise?
"I don't know. You can't just let the gas escape into the atmosphere, because that's not good for the climate either. But it is a bit strange for a university to sell gas."

When did you start this research?
"We had been protesting for a few years, but no one could provide insight into the exact nature of the relationships between universities and fossil fuel partners. When we inquired about it, we found out that university administrators didn't know either. So, we got to work. We started by collecting public information, but we knew there had to be more, so step two was submitting so-called Woo requests. We asked universities to provide documents that record these ties, such as contracts or research proposals. We started to do that two and a half years ago, and we still don't have everything.”

You criticise the fossil fuel industry for funding scientific research. Do they invest a lot of money into this?
"Of course! We're talking about millions, but these are relatively small amounts. Government funding from tax revenue is much more substantial, so we can do without it."

Wouldn't the energy transition move forward faster if universities collaborated with the industry?
"We don't think so. Previous research has shown that economists involved in such collaborations tend to focus solely on the costs of the energy transition, while ignoring the costs of doing nothing about climate change. Here in the Netherlands, we see fossil fuel companies lobbying for measures that suit their interests. The government is sensitive to this, so it is allocating hundreds of millions to research into hydrogen, which seems green, but bear in mind that hydrogen can also be produced from natural gas. Hydrogen allows these companies to continue supplying gas for longer."

In recent years, activists have focused on universities' ties with Israeli institutions. Has climate activism been overshadowed?
"I think so. Perhaps that's why progress has been so slow. We must keep up the pressure. No university has ever thought: 'Hey, we're in the middle of a climate crisis, what are all these fossil fuel companies doing here?'"