Edinburgh University receives millions of pounds worth of research funding from military organisations every year, helping to develop weapons and technology used in war-zones across the globe Student has learned.

A recent report leaked exclusively to Student from the Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), states that the University received £1.37m in government military funding and £637,175 from private arms companies last year including BAE systems and QinetiQ.

BAE systems have been criticised for exporting weapons to Zimbabwe, Israel and Saudi Arabia as well being heavily involved with the production of the ASMP nuclear missile. QinetiQ is a British arms company focused on defence technology.

The SGR report, ‘Behind Closed Doors’ examines the arms links at 16 Universities across the UK, placing Edinburgh in the top-5 for receiving funds from military sources involved in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The information was gathered using the Freedom of Information Act, as well as anonymous interviews with both military-funded and non-military funded staff at the University.

Adam Ramsay, President of EUSA told Student: “the vast majority of research done at the university benefits society. Unfortunately, some is less constructive. While the ethics of how research is conducted is carefully scrutinised, the ethics of the outcomes of research are not...as a university community it is important that we have some democratic oversight of these outcomes.”

The University of Edinburgh’s links to arms-giant BAE systems is particularly sensitive in light of the fact that in 2005, student pressure led to the University disinvesting from the company due to its dubious ethical record.

Last year, the Director of Finance at Southampton University, told students that it would be ‘hypocritical’ to sell his university shares in BAE systems when it receives hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of research funding from them year on year - a sentiment which students in Edinburgh have identified with.

Ethical investment campaigner Ruth Middler told Student: “I am appalled that Edinburgh University attracts research grants and funding from BAE systems. By conducting research for arms companies the University is giving moral support to what they are doing.

For the University to disinvest from BAE while knowingly taking money from them in another guise is unacceptable. These are not the actions of a University that cares about ethics.”

The recent findings correspond to figures in the ‘Study War No More’ report released last year by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) which named BAE systems and QinetiQ as Edinburgh University’s largest annual sponsors of arms-related research projects.

The report confirmed that in 2006 there were 70 projects funded by both the Ministry of Defence and private arms companies at the University of Edinburgh with the School of Engineering, Informatics and the School of Medicine as the 3 departments which received the most funding from military organisations.

With the opening of the new Informatics building in George Square designed to ‘attract research’ to the University, and with BAE systems present at the careers fair this year after being absent since Edinburgh’s disinvestment it is likely these projects will increase.

CAAT’s Tim Street vehemently argued against University arms links and stated that information on universities military funding should be more transparent and available within the public domain:

“Whether or not students and dons regard the commercialisation of higher education as financially necessary, they shouldn't be made to contribute to commercial interests which involve not just corporate profit, but the development of products designed to maim and kill; nor to collaborate with companies whose core markets include conflict zones and human rights abusers” he said.

The recent findings come as Britain was officially labelled the world’s number one arms exporter this summer. In June, trade minister Digby Jones greeted the news as ‘outstanding’ and promised to “look forward to working with the defence sector in future.”

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Edinburgh's secret arms trade Ron Robins (70.52.126.xxx) 2008-10-15 10:27:05 Anyone interested in looking further into ethical investing, might like to go to my popular site which uniquely covers the latest global ethical investing news and research. It's at http://investingforthesoul.com/ I've been following this subject for about forty years. Good luck and best wishes, Ron Robins Reply 0   1

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