Harvard and the Fight for Foreign Collaboration
The Crimson | OMAR ABDEL HAQ AND ERIC YAN
“Debate over the regulation of foreign money in academia, once an afterthought, has become a microcosm of the U.S.’s attempts to remain the world’s top innovator, exposing a tension between the government’s efforts to remain competitive and academia’s goals to promote innovation and the free flow of ideas.”
This in-depth article documents increased regulation since the Trump Administration, the arrest of Harvard’s Charles Lieber, proposals for increased scrutiny of foreign funding, Bacow’s push for deregulation, and the issues surrounding foreign funding and disclosures.
“Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow said proposals that would lower foreign contribution reporting thresholds to $0 and require many schools to create more sophisticated disclosure databases would create ‘enormous burdens’ for administrators and faculty alike.”
As Bacow explained, “‘The government doesn’t need to know who’s buying somebody else a cup of coffee.”
The article explores a multitude of issues surrounding funding, including advancing science, the role of the U.S. government in oversight, and national security risks.
“David M. Sacks, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said researchers collaborating with individuals or entities in China may not always understand whether they are engaging with a private or state-sponsored organization.”
The authors report that “Universities have lobbied against a Senate-approved proposal that would allow foreign gifts and contracts totaling more than $1 million to be preemptively vetted by the federal government if the funding relates to the development of ‘critical technologies.’”
According to the article, ”Bacow said…the proposal would be ‘extremely burdensome,’ adding that the vetting requirement ‘has absolutely no tie to national security interests.’ … ‘It will be burdensome for institutions, but more than that, it will…act as a barrier or an obstacle to research support received from a variety of sources.’”
Related:
Biden Administration Plans to End Inquiry of Colleges’ Foreign Funds (Chronicle, Oct 5, 2022)
The Harvard Connection (The Spectator World, 5/26/22)
Harvard Received Over $1.1 Billion in Foreign Funding Since 2012 (The Crimson, 10/22/20)
The Department of Education Funding Database - foreign gifts and contracts reported June 22, 2020 - March 3, 2022 (self-reported by the institutions).
