Trump team sends survey to foreign researchers amid fears of foreign interference

Trump team sends survey to foreign researchers amid fears of foreign interference

An increasing number of researchers in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada who receive U.S. funding have been asked to disclose their institutions' ties to China and whether their projects are consistent with U.S. government ideology. Associations representing universities in these regions warn that this threatens academic freedom and undermines scientific progress.

Several universities or university associations have confirmed to Nature that some of their employees or members have received a detailed survey asking whether their US-funded projects are related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), climate and environmental justice, or what the survey describes as “gender ideology.” In the USA, the government under President Donald Trump has stopped funding research into these Topics shortened. Additional questions specifically concern the institutions' funding ties and collaborations with entities that may violate U.S. interests.

The survey "represents the extreme end of foreign influence the likes of which we have never seen from our research partners," says Vicki Thomson, chief executive of the Group of Eight (Go8) consortium of Australia's leading research universities, some of which 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 responded.

The questions

The 36-question survey also asks researchers whether their institutions collaborate with communist, socialist or other parties that espouse anti-American beliefs, according to copies of the questionnaire published online by the British newspaper The Guardian and Resource, a journal of Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands.

The answers to the questions are evaluated out of a total of 180 points. Projects receive 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 help combat illegal immigration to the U.S., combat the persecution of Christians, and support efforts to protect rare earths also receive high scores. In contrast, institutions that receive financial support from China, Russia, Cuba or Iran receive lower scores.

Thomson says that although funding agencies often ask about universities' policies on modern slave labor, gender equity and other good research practices, many questions in the survey "go beyond the traditional scope of the application." The researchers had 48 hours to respond to the questionnaires, she adds.

Chad Gaffield, executive director of the U15 chapter of Canadian Research Universities in Ottawa, says the questionnaire asks some familiar and appropriate questions about accountability, transparency and security, while other points "politicize research." The questions threaten the ability of U.S.-led research projects to address essential questions and thereby undermine advances in knowledge, says Gaffield.

In the Netherlands, where the questionnaire was sent to researchers at a university, Caspar Van den Berg, president of the Universities of the Netherlands, said the survey was an example of the deteriorating climate for freedom of scientific practice in the United States, which is affecting Dutch universities and researchers. It “underlines the importance that we all stand up for free science,” Van den Berg said in the Dutch daily NRC.

University response

The surveys were either distributed to foreign researchers by university research partners in the United States or sent abroad directly by U.S. government agencies. Copies of the survey shared online say the document was sent at the direction of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, a major executive branch office that oversees the budget.