Federal Research: Agencies Need to Enhance Policies to Address Foreign Influence |
---|
Federal Research: Agencies Need to Enhance Policies to Address Foreign Influence, Report no. GAO-21-130, Dec, 2020 |
To protect U.S. investments in scientific research from undue foreign influence, federal agencies should have conflict of interest policies and require researchers to disclose foreign interests. Two of the 5 agencies we reviewed do not have agency-wide financial conflict of interest policies, and none of the 5 have non-financial policies (e.g., for researchers with multiple professional appointments). But all require researchers to disclose some non-financial interests in grant proposals—like foreign-provided lab space. We recommended that agencies develop agency-wide conflict of interest policies to help them assess risks of foreign influence.
|