{"id":150594,"date":"2023-02-17T11:30:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T10:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=150594"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:33:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:33:23","slug":"academic-staff-dont-abandon-all-collaboration-with-fossil-fuel-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/02\/17\/academic-staff-dont-abandon-all-collaboration-with-fossil-fuel-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Academic staff: don\u2019t abandon all collaboration with fossil fuel companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to academic staff in Amsterdam and Utrecht, companies like Shell are indispensable for research into green energy. Universities should therefore not simply turn away the outstretched hand of those companies, as climate activists are demanding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Banners during OccupyEUR's occupation of the Erasmus Building.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThanh Nguyen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Thirty professors and researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have written a critical open letter about their university\u2019s decision to put collaboration projects with the fossil fuel industry on hold for the time being. \u201cCollaboration with a broad spectrum of private parties is actually badly needed in order to realise the energy transition and achieve the climate targets\u201d, one of the co-signatories tells<\/a> news platform Folia.<\/p>\n

Ill-considered<\/h2>

The UvA\u2019s moratorium is, in their view, ill-considered. Fossil fuel companies such as Shell have \u201ca great deal of knowledge and facilities that are essential if the results of our research are to be applied on a large scale in practice\u201d, the critics say. And what\u2019s more, by refusing potential collaboration in advance the university would also be restricting their academic freedom.<\/p>\n

Balancing act <\/h2>

Vice-chancellor of Utrecht University (UU) Henk Kummeling is another who does not regard<\/a> stopping the collaboration straight away as an option. In an interview with news platform DUB he talked of the thirteen research projects in Utrecht that are being funded partly by the fossil fuel industry. He takes the view that such funding stimulates green research. \u201cWe are really no longer helping Shell pump up oil.\u201d Academic staff at UU tell him that the company \u201chas a particular infrastructure\u201d that they can make good use of.<\/p>\n

However, the vice-chancellor wants the collaboration to be \u201cmore transparent\u201d and the oil company to increase its energy transition budget. \u201cIt\u2019s all part of a complicated balancing act\u201d, says Kummeling. \u201cWe have to help companies like Shell and convince them too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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