Researchers Should Screen Against New DOD List of Risky Entities, Law Firm Says

American universities and research labs should make sure they’re screening against a new Defense Department list of Chinese, Russian and Iranian institutions that have “elevated risks,” Crowell & Mooring said in a July 11 client alert. The list, published by DOD June 30, includes more than 45 entities that “have been confirmed as engaging in problematic activity,” including behavior that increases the risk that DOD-funded research could be “misappropriated to the detriment of national or economic security.”

The list was accompanied by a new memorandum that outlines the agency’s new processes to review proposals from universities for fundamental research opportunities “with a focus on security threats posed by China, Russia, and other malign actors,” Crowell said. For universities and researchers that rely on DOD funding, the memorandum “puts those institutions on notice that touchpoints with foreign talent recruitment programs; China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea; and U.S. export and sanctions lists, even if all touchpoints are legally authorized, could mean a denial for future funding applications.”

The memorandum includes a “decision matrix,” which could help research institutions “understand the risks DoD assigns to fundamental research proposals” from certain institutions, Crowell said. DOD said the matrix “describes conditions under which mitigation is required” before a university or lab can receive government funding and the types of behaviors the agency finds “problematic.” A list of “prohibited factors” under the matrix includes the foreign institution’s placement on several U.S. restricted party lists, including the Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List, the Treasury Department’s Chinese Military Industrial Complex Companies List and the DOD’s Chinese Military Companies List.