Defining What "Malign" Means in a Maligned Foreign Recruitment Program

Federal research grant funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense, have increased their scrutiny of the unreported relationships between the Principal Investigators, funded by federal research grants, and foreign influence groups. There has been uncertainty within the research community in determining what foreign research collaborations would be considered an unacceptable risk to the federal grant funding agencies. In an attempt to educate PIs and research universities on foreign influence threats, the U.S. Government has introduced the concept of "maligned" foreign organizations involved in the threat of intellectual property and research assets. Unfortunately, there have been differing definitions and interpretations of what some of the federal research grant funding agencies consider to be "maligned" organizations. In this webinar, policy experts from IPTalons will survey the various definitions of "maligned" included in recent federal regulatory documents, policies, and guidelines.

IPTalons speakers will provide research grant administrators, compliance managers, export control specialists, and research security program leaders with a workable definition of "Maligned Foreign Recruitment Program" so that research university policies and procedures can align with the intent and requirements of the federal research grant funding agencies. The webinar will also provide an overview of current best practices in research security and compliance program management to help inform research-driven organizations to design and implement risk mitigation efforts to address the "maligned" foreign interests.

Recording Date: November 18, 2022