Several Dutch universities have or have had close ties with Saudi state oil companies Aramco and SABIC, an investigation of internal university documents on behalf of newspaper Trouw has shown.

Investigative platform Momus analysed some 7,000 documents obtained by research agency Solid Sustainability Research using freedom of information legislation on behalf of the paper.

They found that money supplied by the two companies is often labelled as “donations”, suggesting they came “without any strings attached”.

The investigation showed, however, that the companies were given a say in the type of research projects carried out, as well as access to students and museums, intellectual property, contractual influence on patents and on scientific publications.

The University of Maastricht, for instance, offered “wide-ranging PR and marketing possibilities and other advantages which would support and strengthen Aramco’s regional and national profile”, the paper quoted one of the documents as saying.

In a reaction, the university said external partners were allowed to contribute to “establishing research priorities” and that this did not affect academic independence.

In 2014, Leiden University also offered its services to Aramco, with “access to several company and alumni networks” and a “clear position of Aramco as a partner in all activities”, including cultural ones at the city’s museums.

In a reaction, Leiden University said that Armaco donations stopped in 2023 because the university had changed its mind about cooperating with the fossil fuel industry.

Other universities in the Netherlands have similar ties to the Saudi companies, with Groningen and Maastricht working with SABIC on research projects looking at plastic recycling, Trouw said.

“Saudi Arabia wants to create the impression of a moderate, modern state which is promoting dialogue and knowledge development,” Amnesty International spokesman Floor Beuming told the paper.

“But behind the scenes repression is getting worse with people being arrested for a single tweet and women’s rights activists being tortured,” she said. Dutch universities, he said, are knowingly or unknowingly, are being used by the Saudi PR machine.