What is it about?
Tobacco and fossil fuels both cause disease and death. Both industries also actively try to stop and weaken health and environmental measures and use partnerships with universities and researchers for this. Many universities don't want to work with the tobacco industry anymore, especially on health-related topics. However, they still collaborate with the fossil fuel industry on climate and energy transition projects. We argue that universities, academic journals and research funders should learn from their past relationships with the tobacco industry and avoid unwanted influence of the fossil fuel industry.
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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Students and staff have been calling their universities to cut their fossil fuel ties. The Netherlands has been a frontrunner in this regard, with the VU Amsterdam being the first university worldwide to cut research ties with the fossil fuel industry. Since 2022, there have been multiple student occupation and most Dutch universities developed policy to restrict fossil fuel industry collaborations. However, they still justify collaboration when it is on the energy transition. Lessons from tobacco industry partnerships can inspire policymakers, health professionals and campaigners to take effective action.
Perspectives
We worked on researching fossil fuel ties of Dutch universities for three years with a coalition of students, staff, activists and us as independent researchers. It's great that some of those findings are now published in PLOS Climate and it can support the work of other researchers and journalists. I hope it inspirer universities, campaigners, academic journals, research funders, and health and sustainability professionals to take action for better policy around collaborations with health-harming industries.
Linda Knoester
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Academic collaborations and public health: Lessons from Dutch universities’ tobacco industry partnerships for fossil fuel ties, PLOS Climate, May 2026, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000867.
You can read the full text:
Resources
What can universities learn from their ties with the tobacco industry?
News article on the Leiden University website
Public outreach about tobacco & fossil fuel industry disinformation
Report of our public outreach at the Leiden Knowledge Festival
Fossil Fuel Industry Involvement in Dutch Academia
Interactive report of the Dutch Mapping Fossil Ties Coalition
Contributors
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