Trump team sends survey to foreign researchers-fears about foreign interference

Trump team sends survey to foreign researchers-fears about foreign interference

An increasing number of researchers in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada, received US financing, was asked to disclose the connections of their institutions to China and to state whether their projects match the ideology of the US government. Associations that represent universities in these regions warn that this threatens academic freedom and undermine scientific progress.

Several universities or university associations have confirmed to Nature that some of their employees or members have received a detailed survey in which they are asked whether their projects financed with US funds with diversity, equality and inclusion (dei), climate and environmental equality or what the survey are connected as "gender ideology". In the United States, the government under President Donald Trump has the financing of research on these Topics shortened. Other questions in particular concern the financing connections and cooperation between the institutions with institutions that may violate US interests.

The survey "is the extreme end of the foreign influence that we have never seen from our research partners," says Vicki Thomson, managing director of the Group of Eight (Go8) consortium of the leading research universities of Australia, some of which have received the survey. It could "lead to foreign influence if it runs counter to our values ​​and national interests," she adds.

Many universities in Europe advised their researchers not to respond to the survey, but some in Australia answered.

The questions

The 36 questions also ask the researchers whether their institutions work with communist, socialist or other parties that represented anti -American beliefs, according to the copies of the questionnaire, which were published online by the British newspaper The Guardian and Resource, a journal of Wageringen University & Research in the Netherlands.

The answers to the questions are evaluated from a total of 180 points. Projects get more points if they do not contribute to Dei, climate and "gender ideology" or if their organization does not work with communist, socialist or anti -American parties. Projects that contribute to combating illegal immigration to the USA, combating the persecution of Christians and supporting efforts to protect rare earths also receive high scores. In contrast, institutions receive financial support from China, Russia, Cuba or Iran, lower scores.

Thomson says that although funding agencies often ask for modern slave work, gender equality and other good research practices, many questions in the survey "go beyond the traditional framework of the application". The researchers had 48 hours to respond to the questionnaires, she adds.

Chad Gaffield, Managing Director of the U15 group of the Canadian research universities in Ottawa, expresses that the questionnaire raises some familiar and reasonable questions about responsibility, transparency and security, while other points "politicize research". The questions threatened the ability of US research projects to address essential questions, and thus undermine the progress of knowledge, says Gaffield.

In the Netherlands, where researchers from a university of the questionnaire was sent, Caspar van den Berg, President of the University of the Netherlands, explained that the survey is an example of the deteriorated climate for freedom of scientific practices in the United States, which affects Dutch universities and researchers. It "emphasizes the importance that we all stand up for free science," said van den Berg in the Dutch daily NRC.

reaction of the universities

The surveys were either forwarded to foreign researchers in the United States or sent directly abroad by US government agencies. Copies of the survey that have been shared online state that the document was sent on the instruction of the US Office of Management and Budget, a major office of executive that monitors the budget.