News & Events
2025
NSF Launches New SECURE Center
The NSF has launched a new website for the Safeguarding the Entire Community in the U.S. Research Ecosystem (SECURE) Center which aims to help scientists manage security requirements while maintaining collaborative partnerships. The website will contain several resources for research security, such as newsletters, best policy documents, training, geopolitical analysis and information on international relations and sensitive and high-risk research areas.
Updated Research Visitor Policy
The federal government maintains lists of restricted parties, both individuals and organizations. Hosting Research Visitors from restricted parties (organizations/universities/companies) can create export control risks, including federal violations, as well as raise researchers’ risk profile with the federal government. As of April 15, 2025, Northwestern will not routinely sponsor Research Visitors, including interns, from U.S. restricted lists if the individual is on a U.S. restricted list or their home institution/employer/funder is on a U.S. restricted list. There is a limited appeal/waiver process for certain instances. For more information on this new policy, please consult this new memo from the VPR.
Research Security Training
The federal government is going to require research security training. This mandate stems from President Trump’s National Security Presidential Memo-33 (2021) and the CHIPs and Science Act (2022). Over the next several months, each federal agency will implement this requirement, with the Department of Energy (DOE) leading the way. Starting May 1, 2025, covered and key personnel on DOE proposals (and potentially any listed researcher when applying for a specific notice of funding opportunity) must complete the training prior to submission, and researchers on existing DOE awards will also need to complete the training. Researchers have two training options: (1) a four-hour course developed NSF or (2) a one -hour Northwestern-developed training meeting specific criterion. To reduce administrative burden, Northwestern’s Research Security team has created this one-hour NU-training ahead of the DOE deadline. You can access the Northwestern Research Security Training here. For questions, please contact the Export Controls & International Compliance team.
Federal Agency Risk Assessments
Several federal funding agencies (DOD, DOE, NIH, NSF) have published information on how they assess certain international risk factors, and which factors may warrant mitigation or impact funding opportunities. These matrices provide insight into what specific international activities are considered risky to the agencies and to what degree. There risk criteria differs by each agency, so it is important to review guidance from the agencies you work with or hope to work with carefully. However, common areas of concern include foreign talent plan participation; foreign funding (disclosed and undisclosed), positions, affiliations, and associations with foreign countries of concern (FCOC - China , Iran, North Korea, and Russia); collaborations with restricted parties or denied entities; foreign patents; and co-authorships with FCOC for some agencies. Please see this resource for details and a summary matrix.
2024
April
Proposed BioTech legislation may impact your work
Proposed legislation seeking to address US national security concerns in the biotech space may impact some of Northwestern’s research and collaborations. In its current form, the proposed bill, called the BIOSECURE Act, would prohibit companies and institutions like Northwestern that receive US federal grants or contracts from working with several Chinese biotech companies (BGI, MGI, Complete Genomics, and WuXi Apptec) and other “biotechnology companies of concern.” Read more information about the legislation.
March
Updated COI policy related to Foreign Talent Programs
The federal government continues to regulate participation in Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs. As a result, we have updated Northwestern's Conflict of Interest policy to include definitions of Foreign Talent Programs and "Malign" Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs. Due to a new federal mandate, researchers applying for or working on a federal award cannot be a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program participant. NU researchers must disclose if they are a talent program member of any kind during the annual disclosure for review. In addition, participation in a Foreign Talent Recruitment Program of any kind must be disclosed prior to submission of a federal proposal and within 30 days of becoming a member of a foreign talent recruitment program, malign or otherwise. Questions? Contact the COI office about disclosures. Contact Export Controls about talent programs and to request Restricted Party Screenings of your collaborators.