MUNICH, Germany, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- German universities and research institutes have confirmed accepting Pentagon research grants, the newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported Monday.
At least 22 schools and institutes accepted more than 10 million euros ($13,514,207) from the U.S. Department of Defense for projects in both basic and military research that includes munitions, explosives and drone software, the newspaper said.
Critics say ethics rules are being broken. "Research for war is not ethically responsible," Reiner Braun of the Federation of German Scientists said.
The German news website TheLocal.de noted Pentagon funding is organized so that it can devote money to objectively non-military research projects. It said Munich's Ludwig-Maximillian University received a grant to explore ways of improving explosives, and the Fraunhofer Society, a network of research institutes, received funding for working on bullet-proof glass and explosives.
Ludwig-Maximillian chemistry Professor Thomas Klapotke said he had no problem working with nearly a half million dollars of Pentagon funding to develop explosives that have less of a negative impact on the environment..
"If you believe in the NATO alliance, there is nothing wrong with kitting out [providing] your own people with good material," Klapotke said.
