White House revamps security guidelines for universities

In a push to tighten research security, the White House issued broad new guidelines for big American universities to track foreign travel by their researchers, provide regular security training, and toughen cybersecurity, writes Richard L Hudson for Science|Business.

The new policy will affect about 150 of the largest US universities, an official of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) told Science|Business . The aim is to toughen safeguards against sensitive US research leaking to China, Russia or others. “This stems from a need to bolster our national security,” the official said.

The policy memo, by OSTP Director Arati Prabhakar and addressed to US funding agencies, could be sweeping in its impact on big American research universities. But, say university officials who have been following it in the drafting phase over the past few years, the practical impact is hard to gauge. That’s because it gives federal funding agencies and the universities wide latitude in exactly how they implement the policy, and it allows the universities to modify or expand their existing security measures rather than entirely reinvent them.
Full report on the Science|Business site