Georgia Tech Hosts University Leaders to Discuss Safeguarding U.S. Research

Amid shifting geopolitics and changing national priorities, American higher-education institutions are putting a special emphasis on conducting research securely. To that end, more than 100 leaders in academia and the federal government from across the U.S. met recently to discuss how to accomplish this important task. The inaugural Research Collaboration and Safeguards Workshop, held on September 19, 2024, took place at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Georgia Tech’s outgoing Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR), Chaouki Abdallah, opened the event, noting that global relationships are evolving rapidly, “both with our adversaries and our partners.” Accordingly, to protect U.S. national and economic security, how academic research is conducted must also evolve — in conjunction with federal agencies, industry, and other academic partners. 

Speakers from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DoD) emphasized that these agencies want universities to have open and secure international collaborations. These partnerships are created by building trust, formalizing research security processes, and empowering research communities to make risk-informed decisions. 

Sarah Stalker-Lehoux, NSF deputy chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy, described the present and future states of research security, particularly regarding international collaborations. She outlined the individual research security responsibilities for each entity involved in a partnership: 

• Funders should work to mitigate risk, define their risk tolerance, and work toward saying “yes” to international research collaborations.  

• Research institutions should create a culture of research security and safety across their campuses. 

• Researchers should promote a culture of research security and safety, as well as communication, in their labs. 

 Bindu Nair, DoD director of Basic Research, highlighted the agency’s commitment to preserving open science, which includes international collaborations. 

“The DoD has prioritized research security for the last 50-plus years, while maintaining high publication citations and patent counts. As research security has become a government-wide priority, the DoD has strategically led the conversation,” Nair noted. “Our participation in the Georgia Tech Research Collaboration and Safeguards Workshop was an effort to update the academic and research communities on the current rollout of new research security guidelines and policy.”  

The workshop’s presenters emphasized that every person — and every entity — engaged in research is accountable for protecting U.S. interests. 

King added, “A few schools — like Georgia Tech — are really outliers in how long they have been conducting research with federal partners that require substantial research security safeguards. A workshop like this brings institutions at every experience level into the conversation.” 

 To this end, Georgia Tech is actively building research partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Speakers from AAMU-RISE (Alabama A&M University in Huntsville) and Tougaloo College (Jackson, Mississippi) presented at the Research Collaborations and Safeguards Workshop.  

In addition, more than 170 government, industry, national lab, and academic representatives attended a November 2023 Research Collaboration Forum, hosted by Georgia Tech’s Research Collaboration Initiative, to develop research partnerships with HBCUs. 

 Tim Lieuwen, Georgia Tech interim executive vice president for Research, closed the event by saying, “Research is most successful when it is collaborative. We want your research, and your research collaborations, to succeed and grow. We all have a shared responsibility to safeguard our research; to do this successfully, we must build partnerships in this arena as well. That is why all of us are here today — to move in this direction.” 

The success of the initial Research Collaborations and Safeguards Workshop lays the groundwork for continued conversations in this critical area, and the Institute looks forward to welcoming these same partners — and new ones — to next year’s meeting.