Ulster University took grant from fund backing whites

THE UNIVERSITY of Ulster received dollars 50,000 ( pounds 33,000) last year for research from an American trust fund which promotes the view that whites are genetically superior to other races. The Pioneer Fund has been the subject of recent controversy in America following the disclosure that it provides funds to one of the country's best-known anti-immigration lobbies.

Dr Richard Lynn, professor of psychology at the University of Ulster, and head of the Ulster Institute for Social Research, confirmed last week the receipt of funds from the organisation.

He is researching the effect of nutrition on intelligence and said that he was studying the impact on different races. 'The difference in IQ between whites and blacks is about 15 points,' he said. He claimed that since the First World War, intelligence of all races had risen by 15 points but the difference between the races remained about the same. He attributes the difference to nutrition.

Professor Lynn said that he accepted funds from the New York-based Pioneer Fund because 'it is difficult to raise research money . . . I have tried to raise money from other bodies.'

He said that he was aware that the Pioneer Fund might 'fund things which some might find unacceptable, but I don't accept that this affects the credibility of my research.'

Professor Lynn is the only recipient of money from the Fund working in the UK. According to US tax records for 1992, it distributed around dollars 800,000 in grants around the world. Five years ago, when Professor Lynn was in receipt of a grant of just dollars 5,000, the Independent reported that the University of London's Institute of Psychiatry was also receiving cash from the foundation, although the grant had not been cleared by its academic board. It is no longer listed as doing so.

Professor Lynn also confirmed that he contributes to a magazine called Mankind Quarterly which is published by another recipient of Pioneer funds, the Institute for the Study of Man, and is run by Roger Pearson, who has a history of far-right activity.

In one book Pearson advocates the vision of a 'supergeneration' genetically engineered from the sperm of the fittest and most capable whites. A previous editorial adviser was the Nazi scientist Baron Otmar von Verschuer.

The Fund, set up in 1937, is dedicated to eugenics and human race betterment with special reference to white people in the US, according to its charter, although the word 'white' was removed in 1985.

The Fund's current president, a New York lawyer, Harry Weyher, has repeatedly denied allegations that it is a vehicle for white supremacists. The Fund has given substantial grants to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which argues for tighter controls.