President Joe Biden’s administration last week ordered federal agencies to draft uniform policies describing the outside sources of funding that scientists must disclose when they apply for federal grants, and the penalties for failing to do so. Research groups welcome the directive, but wish it had also specified what kinds of foreign collaborations might get a scientist in trouble.
The new directive, issued on 4 January by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), feeds into a roiling political debate about how to protect federally funded research from attempted theft by some foreign governments. In recent years, the federal government has prosecuted some two dozen academics for failing to disclose financial ties to China, which critics say has criminalized minor violations of often confusing federal rules and chilled research collaborations.
