University of Nottingham - Controversies

Controversies

Nottingham attracted controversy in 2001 when it accepted £3.8 million from British American Tobacco for the creation of a centre of corporate social responsibility. This donation caused Professor Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal to resign from his post as professor at Nottingham. The tobacco company funds were donated to establish an International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham University Business School. Despite predictions that medical research income and cancer studies would be affected adversely in the long-term at Nottingham, funding for cancer research has been robust in recent years, with significant public-private projects on breast and lung cancer in the laboratory of Professor John Robertson, as well as a successful bid in 2008 to establish a UK centre for Tobacco Control Studies under the leadership of Professor John Britton.