A British university probe has cleared a team of scientists linked to the so-called “Climategate” controversy last year. The University of East Anglia launched the investigation after over 1,000 emails were stolen from its Climatic Research Unit and publicly released. Deniers of global warming had claimed the stolen emails provided evidence of an effort to silence academics who have questioned or downplayed human-driven climate change. But in the latest of several probes to clear the scientists involved, panelists found no proof of the charges. University of East Anglia Vice Chancellor Edward Acton said he hopes the so-called controversy can be put to rest.

Edward Acton: “Today, for the third and hopefully for the final time, an exhaustive independent review has exposed as unfounded the whole thrust of the allegations against our science. We hope the commentators will accurately reflect what this highly detailed independent report says and finally lay to rest the conspiracy theories, untruths and misunderstandings that have circulated.”

The British probe comes one week after a Penn State panel exonerated one if its top scientists whose emails were among those released.