Concern over US Pentagon funding to Scottish universities

Aberdeen Live 23 May 2023

The University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University in Scotland received nearly £400,000 (US$496,000) from the Pentagon in the United States since 2012 in order to study the likes of marine animal behaviours and underwater AI machine learning, writes Jon Hebditch for Aberdeen Live.

The Scotsman broke the news as it revealed Scottish universities had been given some £34 million from the US Defense Department in the period. A source told Aberdeen Live that cash-strapped Scottish universities were always looking for new funding sources to balance the books.

Meanwhile, leading human rights organisation Amnesty International said the cash could lower the reputations of the Scots institutions. Oliver Sprague, military, security and police programme director at Amnesty UK, said: “Many Scottish universities have a global reputation and conduct vital research, but they must acknowledge that their involvement in the area of military research directly funded by the US and UK defence departments puts their institutions at significant risk of becoming implicated in the development of technology that can be used to devastating effect.”
Full report on the Aberdeen Live site

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