University to Accept Tobacco Funding

Source from:  tr.itsmyiq.com Sep 24, 2007 09/25/2007

The governing Board of Regents of the University of California has decided that researchers should be allowed to continue accepting tobacco industry grants, according to report by Charles Burress for the Chronicle. The regents, however, have introduced a measure of oversight by requiring that any proposal for tobacco industry funding 'be reviewed by a scientific review committee drawn from the community of scholars', and be approved by the chancellor of the relevant campus. Their 14-4 vote in favor of the measure also requires the university president to submit annual reports to the regents summarizing the number of research proposals submitted, the number approved and the number funded, along with a description of each. Nearly all the regents expressed disdain for the tobacco industry's 'criminal behavior and distortion of research', but several of those who voted to continue to accept funding said they were deferring to faculty concerns about academic freedom. Enditem