Trusted Research

Starting in September 2019, the UK Government and its arms-length bodies started to talk about ‘Trusted Research’ as a term to refer to the consideration of national security issues (threats from hostile actors, whether state, organisational or individual) in the activities of Universities, mostly relating to research, but across the whole of University function.

The University cannot progress nor conclude any research or funding arrangements without full engagement with all matters relating to Trusted Research.

The importance of engaging with Trusted Research

Non-engagement with relevant processes, especially wilful non-engagement, could result in:

delays to, or early termination of, research activity
individual criminal liability or monetary fines for individual researchers, or both
research misconduct, which can have serious consequences, for example, an individual’s blacklisting by research funders
unacceptable misconduct, which can have serious consequences, for example, disciplinary action resulting in dismissal.

Use the Trusted Research Tool to ensure engagement with relevant processes and avoid these potential consequences.

Trusted Research Tool

Use this tool to receive project-specific instructions on how to ensure engagement with relevant processes. This tool is only accessible to those with a University username.

The UK Government wants this to “help the UK’s world-leading research and innovation sector get the most out of international scientific collaboration whilst protecting intellectual property, sensitive research and personal information”.

This agenda is relevant to all disciplines, and across all aspects of University function.

In response to this agenda, the UK Government put in place the Research Collaborations Advice Team (RCAT), which “is a collaboration between the government and academia providing research institutions with a first point of contact for official advice about national security risks linked to international research” which works “across government to make national security advice accessible and digestible for the academic community”.

The University of St Andrews is served by the Edinburgh office of RCAT. The named institutional contact point for RCAT is Dr Richard Greenham, who can be contacted at researchgovernance@st-andrews.ac.uk.

More on the background to the Trusted Research agenda can be explored through the following national resources, and the institutional resources indicated in the table below:
Since 2019 this agenda has become increasingly prominent, guidance documents have been released, and research funders are increasingly asking funding applicants for written assurances that relevant institutional provisions are in place.

The University is required to put in place, and enforce, relevant provisions to ensure that it attends to this agenda. Not doing so would lead to potentially significant reputational risk, including our ability to secure and retain research funding, alongside the risk of criminal liability and legislative or contractual non-compliance, or both. On the latter, export controls and Prevent are examples where criminal liability might arise, whereas updated UKRI terms and conditions are a contractual example.

University working group

The University’s approach to ensuring compliance with Trusted Research has so far been overseen by the Vice-Principal (Research, Collections and Innovation) and the Quaestor and Factor.

Work has been coordinated by a working group coordinated by Research and Innovation Services, so far comprising representatives relating to the following institutional provisions:
- Cybersecurity: IT Services
- Data protection: Information Assurance and Governance
- Declarations of Interests
- Due diligence on overseas research partners: Finance Advice and Support, Research and Innovation Services
- Ethical funder review: Research and Innovation Services
- Export Controls: Research and Innovation Services
- Intellectual Property: St Andrews Innovation
- National Security and Investments Act: Legal Services, St Andrews Innovation, Research and Innovation Services
- Security-sensitive and extremism-related research: Legal Services, Research and Innovation Services
- Travel risk assessment: Environmental Health and Safety, Global Office, Planning
- Vendor checks: Procurement
This working group has:
- Mapped existing processes that address the Trusted Research agenda (as per the list above)
- Developed a tool and held individual ‘case meetings’ with researchers undertaking activity close to or under the Trusted Research agenda
- Liaised with RCAT, Universities Scotland and other Universities on an ongoing basis
This is an ongoing journey for all UK Universities, as documented in a relevant early 2023 report.

Trusted Research

The importance of engaging with Trusted Research

Background

University actions