Edinburgh International Festival | Scientists criticise arms industry sponsorship of Edinburgh science festival | Promoting ethical science, design and technology. Press release and open letter, 13 December 2013 Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) has today written to the organisers of Edinburgh International Science Festival urging them to cut their financial ties to major arms company, Selex ES. The Festival – which is one of the UK’s leading organisers of science education activities for school children – lists as one of its major funding partners, Selex ES. Selex ES manufactures a wide variety of military equipment including unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and targeting systems for combat aircraft and warships. Its annual sales total €3.5 billion. It is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica – one of the world’s largest arms companies. In 2009, one of the Selex family of companies secured a deal with the authoritarian regime of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya for border security equipment worth €300 million.
Dr Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director of SGR, said “Arms companies should not have a role in science education events for children. Notes 1. 2. Resources - Arms Companies - Finmeccanica - Selex ES. Selex ES is a major arms producer. Even though it is just a part of Finmeccanica, its military sales would place it in the world top 100 arms companies in its own right. It was formed in 2012 by the merger of SELEX Sistemi Integrati, SELEX Galileo and SELEX Elsag, and is now part of Finmeccanica's largest business segment, "Defence and Security Electronics".
The proportion of Selex's work that is military-related is not stated, however, it appears to be the bulk of Selex's activities. Selex is based in Italy and the UK but has a presence - to varying degrees - in Brazil, Germany, India, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US. What it makes and who buys it Selex states that it is "an international leader in electronic and information solutions for defence, aerospace, space, security, high-integrity surveillance, network management, information security and mission-essential services" (Selex website). Some of Selex's equipment is listed below, with known customers. Falco drones Radar. Edinburgh International Science Festival: stop supporting the arms trade! Big Bang Fair: Stop Promoting The Arms Trade! Take arms firms out of the Big Bang Fair | @guardianletters | World news. As engineers, health professionals, educationists and others who believe in the power of science and engineering as a force for good, we are writing to condemn the continued sponsorship of today's Big Bang Fair by BAE Systems and other arms companies such as Thales, Selex ES, Doosan, Rolls-Royce and Airbus.
It might seem like a joke: the UK's largest youth science and engineering education event, named the Big Bang Fair, is sponsored by companies who make very big bangs indeed. Except the arms trade isn't funny. All of these companies have a track record of supplying countries with appalling human rights records. Doosan is involved in cluster bomb manufacture. The casual and unquestioned way these companies are allowed public relations space at educational events reflects a serious problem at the heart of modern British science. Big Bang 2014 is a slightly less dystopian vision of engineering than it has been in the past.