I remember being interviewed randomly on the street by local TV news for a &quot;student&#x27;s opinion&quot; on Berkeley&#x27;s Energy Biosciences Institute, which was funded by BP. This was during Deepwater Horizon, and they were despised as much here as anywhere. The research seemed pretty useful though, and it&#x27;s great to get that kind of funding given how tight grants are these days. When the goal of the corporate funding is to build something, rather than to &quot;impartially&quot; assess policies on which the corporation has a well-defined self-interested position, then the process seems less prone to corruption.<p>Still pretty controversial though now that they are pulling funding:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;alumni.berkeley.edu&#x2F;california-magazine&#x2F;just-in&#x2F;2015-02-20&#x2F;not-so-fast-uc-berkeley-biofuel-research-takes-hit-bp-oil" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;alumni.berkeley.edu&#x2F;california-magazine&#x2F;just-in&#x2F;2015-...</a>