The Mancunian: Are universities fuelling fracking?

A report by Fossil Free UK entitled ‘Fracking with education: Public Money, Research and Fracking’ has revealed that for the 2014/15 academic year, the University of Manchester has been awarded grants worth just under £657000 to carry out research into fracking.

The grants have been awarded by the National Environment Research Council (NERC), one of seven UK research councils and a publicly funded, non-departmental government body.

The report shows that just under £4 million in public money has been spent on research into shale gas and that since 2008, 14 universities and four public bodies have received such grants from NERC.

The University of Manchester has received two successful NERC research grants, the first being awarded on the 1st of September 2014 for £74789 and the second on the 30th of November 2014 for a further £582119. Both grants have been awarded to the Earth Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences department.

Read the full article HERE