Irresponsible Science?

The report reveals a pattern of funding, investments, and corporate memberships linking leading UK professional engineering and science organisations to the fossil fuel and arms sectors. It highlights a lack of transparency in financial disclosures and the promotion of these industries to schoolchildren without discussing associated ethical issues. The authors recommend that PESOs implement ethical investment policies, end corporate branding in education, and disclose all corporate payments over £1,000.

• Several UK professional engineering and science organisations (PESOs) have high levels of involvement with the fossil fuel industry in school education. The Royal Academy of Engineering received over 70% of its recent school education programme external funding from fossil fuel corporations, and EngineeringUK received at least £1m from Shell for its 'Tomorrow’s Engineers' programme.
• The Royal Academy of Engineering and EngineeringUK show 'very high' involvement with the arms industry in education. Most of the Royal Academy of Engineering's downloadable teaching resources involve arms corporations, primarily BAE Systems, or promote military technologies, while BAE Systems has been the sole 'lead sponsor' of the 'Big Bang' science fair organised by EngineeringUK for many years.
• Investment transparency among the 20 studied PESOs is generally poor; for the 15 that held investments, only approximately 5% of total assets were identifiable. The Royal Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology had some of the lowest levels of disclosure. Only the British Psychological Society had an ethical investment policy restricting ties to fossil fuel or arms industries.
• The fossil fuel industry provides significant event sponsorship to the Energy Institute, the Geological Society, and the Royal Academy of Engineering. The Energy Institute's International Petroleum Week is dominated by oil industry sponsorship and includes Rosneft, while nearly 90% of the Geological Society's event sponsors are from the fossil fuel sector.
• Five PESOs—the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Physics, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and EngineeringUK—received 'high' or 'very high' event sponsorship from the arms industry, including from BAE Systems, the Atomic Weapons Establishment, and Lockheed Martin.
• Significant institutional links exist through corporate membership and leadership. 70% of the Geological Society’s corporate members are from the fossil fuel sector, and the Royal Academy of Engineering's Engineering Teaching Fellowships were funded by ExxonMobil. Additionally, the Energy Institute's president was a former managing director of Shell until 2019.

APA

Parkinson, S. (2019). Irresponsible Science? Scientists for Global Responsibility. https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/irresponsible-science

Chicago

Parkinson, Stuart. Irresponsible Science? Scientists for Global Responsibility, 2019. https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/irresponsible-science.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Parkinson |first1=Stuart |title=Irresponsible Science? |publisher=Scientists for Global Responsibility |date=6 October 2019 |url=https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/irresponsible-science |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{parkinson2019irresponsible, author = {Parkinson, Stuart}, title = {{Irresponsible Science?}}, institution = {Scientists for Global Responsibility}, year = {2019}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sgr.org.uk/resources/irresponsible-science}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }