After 15 months of wrangling, the Cancer Research Campaign (CRC) has reached agreement with British universities on a policy that it hopes will prevent tobacco companies from funding medical and scientific research in the UK. The policy, which comes into force on April 6th, rules out CRC funding for scientists who work in close proximity to, or share equipment with, those who are funded by the tobacco industry. However, the ban does not extend to research carried out in separate departments within the same university—a distinct climb down of the CRC's original goal.
Initially, the CRC had wanted to go much further even than safeguarding the independence of medical research: it had wanted to stop companies from buying prestige and respectability through funding any area of academic research. But a blanket ban faltered after a public showdown in which the CRC threatened to withdraw £2 million in grants from Cambridge University, which accepted £1.5 million from British American Tobacco (BAT) to establish a chair for International Relations. Cambridge stood its ground, which forced a meeting between the CRC and the committee of University Vice Chancellors to thrash out an agreement.
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