Pentagon Memo Aims to Strengthen China Research Security Controls, Procedures
The Pentagon is looking to tighten controls around fundamental research to better shield that research from “malign" foreign influence and intellectual property theft, including by barring grants if the research involves companies on the agency's 1260H List.
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The agency's new memo, published last week, was applauded by the House Select Committee on China, which pointed to its September report that showed certain Pentagon-funded research was carried out in collaboration with Chinese entities on U.S.-restricted lists. That included the 1260H List of Chinese military companies and the Commerce Department's Entity List (see 2509080044).
"We cannot allow research funding to contribute to the rise of China’s military," committee Chair John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said. He said he will "continue this fight in Congress and keep working with the Trump administration" on the issue.
The Pentagon memo instructs Department of Defense “component heads” to take several steps to better enforce and standardize security procedures in place for certain sensitive research. One portion of the memo orders senior Pentagon officials to block entities on the agency’s 1260H List, along with entities with a “documented history” of patent or IP theft, “from receiving funding from fundamental research assistant awards.”
It also says the Pentagon will carry out “spot checks” of all fundamental research awards that have “mitigation measures” and at least 25% of all other fundamental research awards. Reports of those enforcement spot-checks must be submitted semiannually to the Defense Department’s undersecretary for research and engineering.
The memo also calls for an office to oversee “risk-reviews” of fundamental research, and that office will “submit all relevant information, including disclosure forms, documented risk-based reviews, mitigation plans, and compliance documentation” to the Pentagon’s Science and Technology Program Protection office within 60 days. Pentagon officials then will submit “subsequent documentation” within 30 days of future reviews or rewards.
This new “repository” of risk review information will “enhance the efficiency of information collecting and sharing” within the Defense Department, the memo said. The office of the undersecretary for research and engineering will “deliver a minimum viable product” in the second quarter of this year, with “full operational capability” expected by the fourth quarter.
Other parts of the memo order Pentagon offices to provide information about their "research security activities” on an annual “data call”; ask officials to nominate entities to the agency’s Section 1286 list, which describes foreign entities in China, Russia, and elsewhere “engaging in problematic activity”; order officials to provide annual training to “research security personnel” and report to senior leadership about the type of training that’s currently provided; mandate that officials assist in carrying out a one-year “damage assessment” of certain research security cases identified by the House Select Committee on China; require officials to develop automated vetting and "continuous monitoring capabilities”; and more.
The measures outlined in the memo "represent a decisive step” toward helping the Pentagon strengthen its fundamental research from “adverse exploitation” while preserving the “research and technological superiority of the U.S. military,” it said. “By fostering a culture of vigilance and collaboration across the entire [agency], the Department will be better equipped to anticipate emerging threats, adapt to evolving adversarial tactics, and maintain its position as a global leader in defense, innovation and research.”