Research Security and Foreign Influence – Nov. 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last year or so, I have shared a number of communications from federal agencies highlighting the U.S. government’s growing concern regarding inappropriate influence by foreign entities on federally funded research.

Today, I am writing to share that the National Counterintelligence Security Center (NCSC) has released a Fact Sheet on Protecting Critical and Emerging U.S. Technologies from Foreign Threats, which identifies five key technology sectors which must be safeguarded to ensure U.S. economic and national security: artificial intelligence, bioeconomy, autonomous systems, quantum computing and semiconductors. The Fact Sheet provides information about foreign intelligence threats to each technology sector and ways both organizations and individuals can mitigate risk.

This Fact Sheet, along with other key resources related to foreign influence and research security can be found on a new Research Security webpage hosted by the Office of Research Compliance (ORC). I encourage you to review these new resources so that you are both informed about best practices and compliant with University and sponsor requirements.

Furthermore, ORC invites you to subscribe to the Research Compliance Newsletter, launching in Spring 2022, to be published each semester. This newsletter is designed to keep the research community up to date on compliance topics and make it easier for researchers to gain and maintain compliance.

My office will host a Town Hall on the topic of research security and foreign influence early in the Spring 2022 semester. In the meantime, please direct questions to Amanda Ashe, Director of Research Compliance (amanda.l.ashe@maine.edu).

Office of the Vice President for Research 
and Dean of the Graduate School