Universities dish out £4million for bizarre studies into porno video games and OnlyFans – partly funded by taxpayer

UNIVERSITIES are dishing out £4million for bizarre studies into sex and porn — funded by the taxpayer.

The research grants pay students to look into topics from porno video games and selling sex on OnlyFans to fetishism in robots.

One English student at Birmingham University is even looking at how dwarves’ sexuality is portrayed in the Lord of the Rings books.

Another at Queen Mary University, London, is looking at Brexit’s impact on LGBT sex.

A Sun investigation reveals at least 40 eyebrow-raising studies.

Taxpayers are funding research into the sexual experiences of women who have just had kids, dementia patients, and homosexual Japanese men on social media.

One Cambridge student is taking a deep dive into “racialised and gendered sex robots”.

Funding for the studies is dished out by UK Research and Innovation — a non-government organisation which gets £8billion a year in public cash from the Department for Business.

Of this, nearly £200million a year goes to fund research into the arts, humanities, and social studies.

Independent experts decide which research projects to fund, based on the “quality and likely impact of that research”.

Tory MP Neil O’Brien told The Sun: “There are so many more important things research funds should be going on.

"We can’t afford to be flushing scarce funds down the bog on this kind of stuff.”

A UKRI spokesperson said: "UK Research and Innovation funds a diverse range of research - across a breadth of disciplines – including research that explores complex social, economic, political, and cultural issues. 

"All decisions on projects we invest in directly are made via a rigorous peer review process based on excellence by relevant and diverse independent experts from across academia and business.

"UKRI also awards funding to Higher Education Institutions via other routes.

"In these examples, we have awarded block funding to a group of Higher Education Institutions to support studentships. The institutions make decisions and allocate the funding to specific studentship proposals, following an application process."