{"678031":{"#nid":"678031","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Hosts University Leaders to Discuss Safeguarding U.S. Research","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmid shifting geopolitics and changing national priorities, American higher-education institutions are putting a special emphasis on conducting research securely. To that end, more than 100 leaders in academia and the federal government from across the U.S. met recently to discuss how to accomplish this important task. The inaugural \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/events\/research-workshop\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EResearch Collaboration and Safeguards Workshop\u003C\/a\u003E, held on September 19, 2024, took place at the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s outgoing Executive Vice President for Research (EVPR), Chaouki Abdallah, opened the event, noting that global relationships are evolving rapidly, \u201cboth with our adversaries and our partners.\u201d Accordingly, to protect U.S. national and economic security, how academic research is conducted must also evolve \u2014 in conjunction with federal agencies, industry, and other academic partners.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESpeakers from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense (DoD) emphasized that these agencies want universities to have open and secure international collaborations. These partnerships are created by building trust, formalizing research security processes, and empowering research communities to make risk-informed decisions.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESarah Stalker-Lehoux, NSF deputy chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy, described the present and future states of research security, particularly regarding international collaborations. She outlined the individual research security responsibilities for each entity involved in a partnership:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFunders\u003C\/strong\u003E should work to mitigate risk, define their risk tolerance, and work toward saying \u201cyes\u201d to international research collaborations.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch institutions\u003C\/strong\u003E should create a culture of research security and safety across their campuses.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearchers\u003C\/strong\u003E should promote a culture of research security and safety, as well as communication, in their labs.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Bindu\u202fNair, DoD director of Basic Research, highlighted the agency\u2019s commitment to preserving open science, which includes international collaborations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe DoD has prioritized research security for the last 50-plus years, while maintaining high publication citations and patent counts. As research security has become a government-wide priority, the DoD has strategically led the conversation,\u201d Nair noted. \u201cOur participation in the Georgia Tech Research Collaboration and Safeguards Workshop was an effort to update the academic and research communities on the current rollout of new research security guidelines and policy.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe workshop\u2019s presenters emphasized that every person \u2014 and every entity \u2014 engaged in research is accountable for protecting U.S. interests.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter the event, Christopher King, interim vice president for Research at the University of Georgia, said that his faculty are telling him \u201cthat they want to work with mission-agency partners like the DoD, NSF, and the Department of Energy, and they want guidance on how to do this correctly and safely.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKing added, \u201cA few schools \u2014 like Georgia Tech \u2014 are really outliers in how long they have been conducting research\u202fwith federal partners that require substantial research security safeguards. A workshop like this brings institutions at every experience level into the conversation.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u202fTo this end, Georgia Tech is actively building research partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Speakers from AAMU-RISE (Alabama A\u0026amp;M University in Huntsville) and Tougaloo College (Jackson, Mississippi) presented at the Research Collaborations and Safeguards Workshop.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, more than 170 government, industry, national lab, and academic representatives attended a November 2023 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hbcumsi.research.gatech.edu\/events\/research-collaboration-forum-gt\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EResearch Collaboration Forum\u003C\/a\u003E, hosted by Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/hbcu-msi\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EResearch Collaboration Initiative,\u003C\/a\u003E to develop research partnerships with HBCUs.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/leadership\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETim Lieuwen\u003C\/a\u003E, Georgia Tech interim executive vice president for Research, closed the event by saying, \u201cResearch is most successful when it is collaborative. We want your research, and your research collaborations, to succeed and grow. We all have a shared responsibility to safeguard our research; to do this successfully, we must build partnerships in this arena as well. That is why all of us are here today \u2014 to move in this direction.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe success of the initial Research Collaborations and Safeguards Workshop lays the groundwork for continued conversations in this critical area, and the Institute looks forward to welcoming these same partners \u2014 and new ones \u2014 to next year\u2019s meeting.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIn the workshop, leaders from academia and government shared strategies for creating secure international research collaborations while protecting national security and economic interests.\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"In the workshop, leaders from academia and government shared strategies for creating secure international research collaborations while protecting national security and economic interests. "}],"uid":"28766","created_gmt":"2024-10-31 13:46:09","changed_gmt":"2024-10-31 13:47:54","author":"Shelley Wunder-Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-10-31T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-10-31T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"675473":{"id":"675473","type":"image","title":"Research Security Workshop 2024","body":null,"created":"1730381401","gmt_created":"2024-10-31 13:30:01","changed":"1730381507","gmt_changed":"2024-10-31 13:31:47","alt":"A woman in a white shirt and a man in a blue button-down shirt are smiling while looking at a computer screen.","file":{"fid":"259101","name":"ResearchWorkshopImageSept24.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/31\/ResearchWorkshopImageSept24.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/31\/ResearchWorkshopImageSept24.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1156177,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/10\/31\/ResearchWorkshopImageSept24.jpg?itok=iYNAtar9"}}},"media_ids":["675473"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAngela Ayers\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EAssistant Vice President of Research Communications\u003Cbr\u003Eangela.ayers@research.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["swundersmith3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}