NSF Revises Grant Guidelines to Beef Up International Research Collaboration

The National Science Foundation has released a new framework to assess the potential national security threats of the research grant proposals that it receives. 

The guide, Trusted Research Using Safeguards and Transparency, seeks to strengthen international research cooperation, while also helping protect U.S. taxpayers’ research investments. 

TRUST includes a new NSF effort on weighing potential national security concerns arising from grants and avoiding the curtailment of potentially beneficial research projects due to excessively cautious opinions. It also promotes due process and open communication within the research community. 

Rebecca Keiser, head of the NSF’s Office of the Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy, viewed the guide as a major pivot “from a compliance culture to a research security culture,” the NSF said.  

Keiser stressed that the U.S. leadership in science cannot be maintained with a fixation on “zero risk related to research security.” She added that NSF will collaborate with the research community, industry and government to determine potential risks and enable continued research work. 

Recent collaborative projects on NSF international grants include quantum information science proposals from teams of American and French researchers as part of a memorandum of understanding signed with the French National Research Agency in 2023.