Four of the UK's top universities for science have accepted at least £89 million in donations and research funding from major fossil fuel and mining companies over the last five years, new research has revealed.
The figures were compiled by Greenpeace through a months-long series of freedom of information requests to several dozen universities. They were shared exclusively with BuzzFeed News, which has independently reviewed the findings.
The research shows that the University of Manchester received the most from energy companies, taking a total of £27.7 million, predominantly from BP and Shell, for individual research projects.
Cambridge was a close second, receiving just under £26 million, split between £15.5 million in donations and a further £10.2 million in research funding for specific projects.
Imperial College received a total of £24 million, again all for research projects, and again dominated by Shell and BP. This total could be still higher, as the college said it didn't keep records of "non-project funding" across its different divisions.
Oxford University gave a much lower figure – £11.3 million – but the true total is higher as the university provided only estimates of its donation income and excluded some research funding from Shell for corporate confidentiality.
Greenpeace said the amount of funding received by Manchester, Cambridge, and Imperial exceeded the money the institutions received from the Natural Environment Research Council, one of the UK's major independent funders of scientific research.
Universities have long taken research funding and donations from outside sources, but environmental groups fear accepting money from fossil fuel companies risks the independence of research, whether directly or through the shaping of what kind of projects get funding.
"These figures are very disturbing," said Dr Stuart Parkinson, the executive director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, who was shown the results by Greenpeace.
"They clearly show that leading oil and gas corporations have a major influence on many of the UK's top universities – both in research and teaching.
"Such large funding can and will influence research agendas, steering them towards fossil-fuel-related R&D rather than urgently needed alternatives. This is very likely to undermine progress in tackling climate change."
As well as BP and Shell, companies providing the funding included the mining giant Anglo American and Norway's state oil company, Statoil.
ExxonMobil, which has been frequently criticised for funding climate-change-denying lawmakers, was also among the funders. The company's website acknowledges the "long-term risks" of climate change.
Neither Manchester nor Cambridge responded to a request from BuzzFeed News for a comment on their donations.
A spokesperson for Imperial said it worked with a wide range of funders.
"At Imperial College London, we collaborate with a wide range of partners, including business, academia, industry, healthcare, and government," they said.
"We work with energy companies on a variety of projects, seeking solutions to the world's need for sustainable energy and exploring ways of mitigating the effects of energy consumption on the environment.
"Examples include Imperial's Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre, jointly funded by Shell, which is developing innovative techniques in carbon capture and storage to reduce the emissions being released into the atmosphere.
"The BP Urban Energy Systems project at Imperial is looking at ways that cities could better integrate resources such as power, heating, transport and water service to reduce costs, energy and environmental impact."
Oxford University only provided ranges for its donations, which in some cases were very wide — one was given as between £1,000,000 and £9,999,999. Taking the midpoints of the ranges given resulted in an estimated donations total of £10.5 million, which the university refused to specify further.
Oxford also revealed that it had taken further funding from Shell, but it would not disclose any information on how much.
"Further grants have been provided by companies within the Shell Group over the last five years but Shell considers the information relating to these other grants to be confidential," Oxford's letter stated.
"In its view, disclosure would weaken its position in negotiating the amount of any research funding it provides to universities and the terms on which such funding is granted."
Neither Shell nor Oxford provided any further details when asked by BuzzFeed News.
Shell did, however, disclose its total UK university spending for 2014.
"Shell works in strategic partnerships with organisations like universities, think tanks, research councils and NGOs," said a spokesperson.
"These partnerships enable world-class research into issues of relevance to Shell and the energy industry, which could ultimately contribute to achieving a higher-energy, lower-carbon world.
"In 2014, we spent $21.7 million [£14.1 million] on research and development activities at UK universities. However, we do not disclose individual research project funding levels as this information is commercially confidential."
In a statement, a spokesperson for Oxford University said donations did not affect the institution's independence.
"All donations to the University, whether from oil companies or anyone else, do not affect the independence of our teaching and research programmes," they said. "Those donating money to the University have no influence over how academics carry out their research or what conclusions they reach.
"Where the results of research are not favourable to industry, the researcher will still seek to publish the results in the usual way. The University of Oxford is one of the world's leading universities, with the top ranking in the UK's 2014 Research Excellence Framework. This would not have been achieved if our research was not rigorous, independent and objective."
The spokesperson noted that research funding from energy companies was a small portion of the university's total of £478 million-a-year in research funding from all sources.
Greenpeace's wider FOI research found a total of £134 million in funding from energy companies going to 39 universities that responded at least partially to its requests.