The University is establishing an ad hoc committee to consider questions concerning funding for research from the fossil fuel industry. The committee’s co-chairs are Prof. Keren Bergman, Charles Batchelor Professor of Electrical Engineering and Prof. Sarah Cole, Dean of the School of the Arts and Parr Professor of English and Comparative Literature. The members include experts from Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, the Climate School, Engineering, International and Public Affairs, Journalism, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Law, and Public Health to consider key questions.
The University has made a significant commitment to environmental sustainability, demonstrated through many University actions. These include the establishment of the world’s first Climate School; the establishment of Columbia’s Office of Sustainability; Columbia’s Plan 2030 to achieve net zero emissions by 2050; tracking and reporting progress toward this goal through the Climate Registry Reporting; the plan to build a new biomedical research building that will be one of the first net zero buildings of its kind in New York City; and the University’s commitment to sustainable investment and its position of non-investment in publicly traded oil and gas companies.
Important as these policies and actions are, they do not directly address the question of the University’s acceptance (or not) of research funding from fossil fuel companies. Concerns about the potential undue influence of the fossil fuel industry on academic research have been reported in the press and in scholarly publications. Columbia’s conflict of interest policies address these concerns to some degree, but they do not answer the question of whether funding from fossil fuel companies should receive special scrutiny.
The Senior Advisory Group on Research Risk and Policy has therefore appointed an ad hoc committee of faculty to consider the following key questions:
- Going forward, should Columbia receive support from fossil fuel companies for its research and research-related activities?
- What are the potential risks and benefits of future acceptance of research funding from fossil fuel companies at Columbia?
- Are there dimensions specific to the nature or discipline of the research in question (e.g., basic scientific or engineering research vs policy or legal research vs ethics) to be considered in answering these questions?
- Do all fossil fuel companies warrant the same approach, or are there differences among them that should be considered?
- What criteria should be used to assess opportunities for research funding from fossil fuel companies as they arise, and whether they should or should not be accepted by the University? Can broad guidance be developed to supplement or eliminate case-by-case evaluation?
- Are there other questions concerning research funding from fossil fuel companies that the University should consider?
To carry out this charge, the committee is expected to engage with and receive input from students and student groups, faculty, researchers, and other constituents across the University.
The committee is expected to produce a report and suggest a set of guiding principles that may be used by the University in relation to future decision making about fossil fuel funding for research.[1]
The committee will be appropriately staffed and may include non-voting members from relevant administrative offices.
The committee will use the following definitions:
Research funding from fossil fuel companies: funding used for research and research-related activities, whether through a grant, contract, or unrestricted gift, from a company whose primary business is: (a) the exploration and production of fossil fuels, or integrated oil and gas companies whose business includes the exploration, production and refining and marketing of oil and gas; or (b) the production of thermal coal. (See CU Investment Policy on Fossil Fuels).
Research: all basic, applied and demonstration research in all fields of knowledge (See CU Policy on Misconduct in Research).
[1] Such reviews could be carried out by, e.g., the University’s Gift Review Committee or by the Senior Advisory Group on Research Risk and Policy.