Government and the Evolving Research Profession

Wright discusses the federal government and the evolving research profession. The burgeoning international research environment brings with it new and exciting opportunities for collaboration and partnership in innovation. But as the door for collaborative progress opens wider, it also opens for national security risks--and nefarious foreign influence has been discovered in labs and on campuses across the country. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report highlighted concerns over foreign government talent recruitment programs, noting that these programs can influence researchers receiving federal funding to divert intellectual property and federally funded research to other countries. Several reports by GAO as well as the work of other organizations have reinforced the importance of maintaining an open research environment that fosters collaboration, transparency, and the free exchange of ideas, while balancing these obvious benefits against the risk of foreign influence and nefarious conduct. Although it is in many ways beneficial to innovation and progress, the globalized collaboration environment also calls for new core competencies: researchers are asked to be part science diplomats and part counterintelligence operatives. In contemplating the future of the research profession, she sees parallels to GAO's mission values of integrity, accountability, and reliability.