Mapping Corporate Influence and Institutional Corruption Inside Canadian Universities

Corporate influences that threaten the independence of science and trust in research often remain hidden from the general public. For university administrators these improper influences are often tacitly accepted as simply the new reality of funding environments—something to be managed, rather than eliminated. In this article, we structurally map patterns of corporate influence that threaten to distort the independence of research. Specifically, we map relationships between the fossil fuel industry and three major Canadian institutions of higher education. We also provide case studies of institutional corruption inside two of these universities. Our findings reveal elite interlocking networks between the fossil-fuel sector and academia as well as corporate influences that serve to decrease the independence of science and trust in research.