Alcohol Research Group
The Alcohol Research Group was based at the University of Edinburgh and was set up with funding from the Scotch Whisky Association in 1978. It later received core funding between 1990-95 from the drink industry funded Portman Group. Controversy dogged the group as a result of conflicts of interest connected to the funding relations with the drinks industry.
Contents
Organisational situation
The ARG was based in 1988 in 'a crumbling wooden hut attached to the Department of Psychiatry in the University of Edinburgh'[1] adjacent to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Morningside on the South of the city. In 1988 Plant noted that 'none of the Group's full members hold tenured University positions.' [1] When the Group became controversial, this precarious position would make it easier for the University to dissociate itself from the group.===Controversy about
Links to alcohol industry
- Professor Plant said in Edinburgh yesterday that in all publications on drink -related problems he had writ-ten, details of reseach backing had never been concealed... Asked if he saw himself in a position of conflict because of the funding from the industry, he said: "That is a reasonable question but my colleagues and I have had total freedom without any constraints, although we have had substantial drinks industry funding."[2]
- By lunchtime yesterday Professor Martin Plant and John Duffy looked like a couple of men in need of a stiff drink. Their problems started early in the day when a newspaper report described how their jobs were being funded by the Portman Group, which is in turn funded by the drinks industry. To two of Britain's leading figures in alcohol research, the link appeared - on face value - damaging. Both men spent a good deal of yesterday insisting that such a conclusion would be wrong. By late morning their fifth-floor offices at Edinburgh University's Alcohol Research Group had been put under what amounted to a minor press siege. Interest in the report carried on the front page of the Independent was fuelled by the high media profile enjoyed by Mr Duffy and Prof Plant, in the latter's case for nearly two decades.[3]
People
According to Martin Plant, writing in 1988, 'the past and current work of the ARG has been greatly assisted by the presence of a number of clinicians and researchers who are also based in Edinburgh'. these included Dr Jonathan Chick, Mr John Duffy, Prof Robert Kendell, Prof Norman Kreitman, Mr Dave Peck, Mr Ian Robertson and Dr Bruce Ritson.[1]
Current members circa 1988
Gelisse Bagnall, Janis Nicholl, Val Mannings, Val Morrison, Martin Plant, Moira Plant, Jim robertson, Ray Stuart[1]
Former members circa 1988
Alex Crawford, Suna Kilich, Ted Myers, Jane Pattison, Elaine Samuel[1]
Others
Wendy Loretto - 'worked for three years' at ARG.[4]
Funding
According to Martin Plant, writing in 1996, the Group was in receipt of funding from the following sources:
- Between 1978 and 1990 it received core funding from the Scotch Whisky Association. Since 1990 core funding has been provided by the Portman Group. The activities of the ARG have also been supported by the AIDS Education and Research Trust, the Alcohol Education and Research Council, the Bank of Scotland, the Brewers' Society, the Department of Transport, the Economic and Social Research Council, Ethicon Ltd, the Gannochy Trust, William Grant and Sons Ltd, the Health Education Board for Scotland, the Home Office, the Hope Trust, the Bill Kenyon Education Trust, Lothian Regional Council, Marks and Spencer PLC, MacGregor and Company, the Medical Council on Alcoholism, the Medical Research Council, the Mental Health Foundation, Renewal Clinics, the Robertson Trust, the Scottish Health Education Group, the Scottish Office, the Wellcome Trust, the Western Isles Health Board, the World Health Organization, and by two anonymous charities.[1]
In an earlier account of the group, in 1988, Plant had named a further charitable trust the Bill Kenyon Education Trust as well as the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (Canada) and the Society for the Study of Addiction to Alcohol and Other Drugs.[1]
Resources
- Plant, M. (1988) 'Edinburgh: The alcohol research group'. British Journal of Addiction, 83 (4). pp. 351-358. ISSN 0952-0481.
- Jonathan Rhys Evans #500,000 aid for alcohol research Glasgow Herald, Thursday 26 October 1989.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Plant, M. (1988) 'Edinburgh: The alcohol research group'. British Journal of Addiction, 83 (4). p. 351. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "Plant" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Alan Hunter, Drink research grant defended, The Herald (Glasgow) December 6, 1994: Pg. 3.
- ↑ Graeme Wilson ‘Free Spirits’ The Scotsman, December 6, 1994, Tuesday: Pg. 2.
- ↑ University of Edinburgh Business School Wendy Loretto, accessed 3 November 2013
