Federal Research: Agency Actions Needed to Address Foreign Influence
Federal Research: Agency Actions Needed to Address Foreign Influence, Report No. GAO-22-105434, Oct 2021
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. We testified that the National Science Foundation has an agency-wide financial conflict of interest policy, but it doesn't define non-financial conflicts (e.g., for researchers with multiple professional appointments). The policy does require researchers to disclose some non-financial interests in grant proposals—like foreign-provided lab space. We recommended defining non-financial conflicts in agency policies in our report on NSF and 4 other agencies.
Publication type:
policy brief
Publication language:
English
Publication date:
2021
Publication URL:
https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-105434
Institute:
Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics team of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) (STAA)
Country:
United States of America
Project:
Federal Research: Agency Actions Needed to Address Foreign Influence (STAA)