Dr Thomas F Babor, head of the department of community medicine and healthcare at the University of Connecticut, made his comments in an editorial for the respected academic journal Addiction. "We do not think that UCD wants to diminish its wellearned reputation for academic excellence by taking money for research that will inevitably raise suspicions as to its reliability and objectivity in the truly independent research sector, " he wrote.

Diageo, which owns Smirnoff, Guinness, Baileys and other alcohol brands, gave 1.5m sponsorship to UCD's Geary Institute for the study in April. UCD announced that the study would investigate how people process risk and how this impacts on their subsequent behaviour. Two professors, Colm Harmon of the UCD school of economics and Patrick Wall of the UCD school of public health and population sciences, will lead the programme.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune this weekend, Babor questioned Diageo's motives in providing such large funding. "If they [Diageo] were interested in what drives binge drinking, they would look at why people select their products and whether they respond to advertising, " he said.

"That's not part of their research. There is a risk of Diageo getting credit for funding science which might later be used for public relations purposes, especially as they are being criticised by government agencies for their marketing activities.

"One questions why this research is being funded now when the Irish department of health and children has issued two very detailed and extensive reports on college student drinking and advertising."

The head of branch communication strategy at Diageo, Beth Davies Ryan, said the study was "independent" and the company's reason for funding the research was "to support the development of information about the behaviours and attitudes of this cohort vis-a-vis their drinking behaviours [and] to inform policy makers."

The research is being conducted in collaboration with the RAND corporation in California. Professor Wall, one of the academics leading the study, said that although people worried "about telephone masts, incinerators, bird flu and the like they appear much less concerned about the risk of diet-related disease and unhealthy alcohol consumption patterns."

UCD was unavailable for comment.