Government to help universities protect their research

The United States Department of Commerce on Tuesday 28 June announced a new effort aimed at working with universities to protect potentially sensitive research products from theft by foreign agents, writes Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed.

The so-called Academic Outreach Initiative was announced by the Commerce Department’s assistant secretary for export enforcement, Matthew S Axelrod, in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Attorneys.

“The challenges of keeping our academic research environments thriving and our controlled information secure from improper foreign acquisition are significant,” Axelrod said in remarks prepared for delivery at the conference. “That’s why I’m announcing today a new export enforcement initiative to help academic research institutions protect themselves from these threats.”
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site