Irresponsible Science?

The document investigates EngineeringUK's corporate associations, finding significant financial ties to the arms and fossil fuel sectors. It highlights that while the organization promotes engineering to young people, its flagship events and programmes are heavily sponsored by companies like BAE Systems and Shell. The report notes a lack of environmental or ethical investment policies and criticizes the transparency regarding the scale of funding from these controversial sectors.

• EngineeringUK lacks both an environmental policy and an ethical investment policy, with no evidence of either found in published reports or website information.
• Analysis of EngineeringUK's investments showed that 29% of the identifiable assets were invested in the fossil fuel sector, although data was only available for approximately 16% of total investments.
• The Big Bang Fair, EngineeringUK's flagship event, has a high level of involvement from the arms industry; in 2019, 20% of the 70 listed sponsors were from the arms or military sectors, with BAE Systems serving as the sole lead sponsor.
• The Tomorrow's Engineers programme and its sub-programmes show significant industry ties: 14% of listed partners were arms companies and 9% were from the fossil fuel industry. Specifically, the Energy Quest programme received £1 million in funding from Shell, which was not mentioned on the programme's own webpage.
• The Robotics Challenge programme, aimed at students aged 11 to 14, is heavily linked to the military sector, with 60% of its five partners being arms companies or the UK armed forces.
• EngineeringUK's corporate membership includes 38 organisations, of which 18% are from the arms industry and 8% are fossil fuel corporations. In 2017/18, this stream generated over £51,000 from arms corporations and nearly £23,000 from the fossil fuel sector.

APA

Scientists for Global Responsibility (n.d.). Irresponsible Science? https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/7-EngineeringUK.pdf

Chicago

Scientists for Global Responsibility. Irresponsible Science? n.d. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/7-EngineeringUK.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Scientists for Global Responsibility |title=Irresponsible Science? |url=https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/7-EngineeringUK.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{scientistsforglobalresponsibilityndirresponsible, author = {{Scientists for Global Responsibility}}, title = {{Irresponsible Science?}}, institution = {Scientists for Global Responsibility}, url = {https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/7-EngineeringUK.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }