Ohio State Accepts Tobacco Money, Loses State Grant July 15, 2003
Funding Tips & Trends
Ohio State University has accepted a $590,000 grant from Philip Morris for nicotine research, but as a result has forfeited $540,000 in state grant funding, the Associated Press reported July 8.The tobacco company awarded the grant to neuroscientist Thomas Boyd for a study on how nicotine affect the nerve cells of zebra fish. As a result, however, the school's College of Medicine lost a $540,000 grant from the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation, which prohibits grantmaking to any institution that accepts money from the tobacco industry.
The foundation grant had paid for the school to provide prevention services to adults in two counties.
Thomas Rosol, Ohio State's interim vice president for research, said the school was "not making a value judgment on the products that Philip Morris produces." He said that the foundation grant had too many restrictions, while the tobacco-industry funds had none.
