Dear colleagues:
International collaborations offer significant benefits, such as diverse technical skills, access to foreign talent, and enhanced knowledge of other countries. However, they also pose risks, including technical threats like computer viruses and export control violations, and non-technical risks like conflicts of interest and policy violations.
Maintaining security is crucial as federal funding agencies are focused on the potential for inappropriate access to critical technologies and intellectual property. All agencies have extensive requirements for proposers to report their engagements. An increasing number have implemented risk matrices in proposal review that include prior or ongoing collaborations with strategic competitors.
The University’s research security program strives to assist UT faculty and researchers with navigating the high-stakes environment of international collaboration. As part of this effort, an International Collaboration Review Committee (ICRC) comprised of faculty and research administrators, has been in the planning stages for several months and will begin reviewing collaborations with countries of concern in January 2025. These countries, as defined by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and Texas Executive Order No. GA-48, include China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.
Faculty and researchers with planned collaborations or field research in countries of concern, as well as those with in-progress projects, should submit through the web-based ICRC portal information about the collaboration and how it benefits their overall scholarly agenda. Prospective collaborations will take review priority.
The ICRC will review the proposed work and provide risk mitigation recommendations related to issues such as travel security, data security, disclosure to UT and sponsors, and co-authorship. The committee will not deny projects but will help facilitate productive and secure collaborations.
Please refer to the ICRC website to submit projects for review and the ICRC FAQs for further information. Questions should be directed to the Research Security program at SAS@austin.utexas.edu.
Sincerely,
