Research and Financial Relationships with the Arms Trade
Dear Imperial College London,
I am writing to request information on the research and financial relationships the university holds in the following companies: BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce, GKN, Cobham, Elbit Systems, Leonardo, L3 Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Thales, Boeing, General Dynamics, Airbus, United Technologies, Babcock International, Serco, Meggitt, AirTanker, Chemring and Ultra Electronics and any other arms companies.
Additionally, I am writing to request information on the contracts the university holds with the Ministry of Defence and equivalent bodies and armed forces of other countries.
Please include the following information:
1) For each of the above companies/bodies please list all the projects, industrial consultancy and industrial research that the university has received funding for over the past four academic years, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. Details should be broken down by each university department, showing the company or government body who have provided funding, the start and end date of each contract, title of the project/research, and total funding of each project/research year-by-year for the past four academic years. Lastly, please list all external organisations and bodies that are also participants in the projects/research identified.
2) Does the university have, or is it working towards, an ethical research policy that excludes, or could exclude, the companies listed above?
Please provide the information in a machine readable form and spell out all acronyms.
Yours faithfully,
Jessica Poyner
Dear Ms Poyner,
This is to acknowledge receipt of your request below, made under the Freedom of Information Act. The College aims to respond to your request within twenty working days of receipt of your request.
We will contact you again in due course.
Kind regards,
Bryony Greenfield
Dear Ms Poyner,
Thank you for your recent Freedom of Information request.
Please find below the College's response to your questions:
I am writing to request information on the research and financial
relationships the university holds in the following companies: BAE
Systems, Lockheed Martin, QinetiQ, Rolls-Royce, GKN, Cobham, Elbit
Systems, Leonardo, L3 Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Thales,
Boeing, General Dynamics, Airbus, United Technologies, Babcock
International, Serco, Meggitt, AirTanker, Chemring and Ultra Electronics
and any other arms companies.
Additionally, I am writing to request information on the contracts the
university holds with the Ministry of Defence and equivalent bodies and
armed forces of other countries.
Please include the following information:
1) For each of the above companies/bodies please list all the projects,
industrial consultancy and industrial research that the university has
received funding for over the past four academic years, 2013-2014,
2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. Details should be broken down by each
university department, showing the company or government body who have
provided funding, the start and end date of each contract, title of the
project/research, and total funding of each project/research year-by-year
for the past four academic years. Lastly, please list all external
organisations and bodies that are also participants in the
projects/research identified.
Please see the attached PDF which shows the income per year by funder and
department. The figure provided above is the total amount awarded for
research projects (less any Research Partner amounts) over the period of
the request.
We have included information only for those companies you have specified
in your request as it is not for College to determine whether any other
company or organisation may or may not fall within the definition of an
arms trade company.
It is not possible to provide the titles of individual research projects
benefiting from this funding or any further contractual details as to do
so would require every individual research contract to be identified,
retrieved and checked in order to ensure disclosure of the information
would not breach contractual obligations. It is estimated that to do so
would exceed the appropriate limit set at 18 hours of work. This
information is therefore exempt under section 12 of the Freedom of
Information Act. Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act states: (1)
Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request
for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with
the request would exceed the appropriate limit (under the Freedom of
Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations
2004).
2) Does the university have, or is it working towards, an ethical research
policy that excludes, or could exclude, the companies listed above?
The College has an Ethics Code and a Relationship Review Policy. Further
information on Ethics at the College is available on our website here:
[1]http://www.imperial.ac.uk/admin-services...
I am obliged, under the Freedom of Information Act, to inform you of our
complaints procedures in case you are unhappy about the way in which your
request has been dealt with. If you wish to complain about this response,
you should contact the College Secretary at the address below.
The College Secretary
Imperial College London
Exhibition Road
London
SW7 2AZ
E-mail: [2][email address]
If you are unhappy about the way in which the College Secretary handles
your complaint then you may have recourse to the official regulator for
the Freedom of Information Act who is:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Kind regards,
Bryony Greenfield
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