How Big Oil jeopardizes academic independence

American universities are putting their academic integrity at risk by giving oil and gas firms and other polluting industries unprecedented influence over the research those companies fund on campus.

That's the conclusion of a new report from the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, which surveyed nine major universities -- including two based in the South -- that recently launched industry-funded research programs on biofuels and other issues related to global warming. It found that in return for accepting industry money, universities are letting corporate representatives sit on governing boards, giving companies first rights to intellectual property, or allowing companies to review and possibly delay publication of studies.

"It's a cheap subterfuge for carbon-emitting companies," says Merrill Goozner, director of the CSPI's Integrity in Science Project. "They get the prestige of associating themselves with major respected universities, yet can control the direction of research and get first rights to intellectual property while delaying any finding that doesn't help the bottom line."

Among the examples cited in the report, the Georgia Institute of Technology's five-year, $12 million biofuels research grant from Chevron gives company officials final review for every project funded by the program. And at Rice University in Houston, the Shell Center for Sustainability -- which received $3.5 million from the oil giant in 2002 -- has two company representatives on the seven-person committee that makes funding decisions.

CSPI offers recommendations to help universities protect their and their researchers' independence. They include prohibiting representatives of corporate donors from sitting on research programs' governing boards, prohibiting industry donors from controlling the content and direction of research programs, eliminating "first rights" intellectual property clauses from donor agreements, and ensuring that company representatives can't make significant editorial changes in manuscripts or delay their publication.