Parliamentary Committee Notes: Research Security in Canada

Date: February 2, 2023

Branch/Agency: NCSB

Issue:

To provide an overview of Public Safety Canada’s efforts to protect the integrity of Canadian research, innovation, and development from foreign interference and intellectual property theft, in support of Minister Mendicino’s appearance before the Special Parliamentary Committee on Canada-China Relations (CACN).

Proposed Response:

• The high quality of research in Canada is driven by our support for open science, academic collaboration and corporate partnerships, and we take any indication that this research is vulnerable to access by foreign actors very seriously.
• We know that Canadian researchers who are at the forefront of leading-edge research are no less vulnerable and that foreign actors could potentially try to access their research data and intellectual property for their own benefit.
• In July 2021, our Government announced the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships which applies security considerations to research grants that involve a private partner.
• The integration of security considerations into the awarding of research grants is achieved by a risk assessment where applicants first identify and assess risks that their research partnership may pose to Canada’s national security by completing a form.
• The information provided by the applicants is used to determine whether a further assessment by national security agencies is needed for the application.
• To complete this work, we announced funding for a new Research Security Centre in Budget 2022 which is tasked with processing national security applications for review, developing research security policy, and conducting outreach to academic institutions and provincial governments on research security.
• Public Safety Canada, along with 10 other federal departments and agencies, conducts academic outreach through our Safeguarding Science Initiative, which provides workshops to academic institutions and federal labs on how to secure their research.
• Public Safety and Innovation, Science and Economic Development have also jointly published training resources on the Safeguarding Your Research Portal, where researchers and academics will be able to find helpful resources on how to protect their information.

If pressed on recent Globe and Mail reporting on research security:

• We recognize that Canada gains no benefit from sharing research with foreign hostile states and we have always been concerned about dual-use scientific research relating to military technology and have already worked to limit knowledge transfer through our export controls regime.
• Since 2016, we have conducted academic outreach through our Safeguarding Science Initiative which provides workshops to universities and federal labs on how to best protect their research. Public Safety and partners have reached a total of roughly 2500 participants through these workshops.
• With the leadership of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Public Safety is aiding the research community in implementing the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (Guidelines) by reviewing federal research grant applications that are deemed to pose a national security risk.
• The Guidelines are a new initiative having just completed its pilot phase in December. During this pilot phase, Public Safety received 48 applications for national security assessment.
• The Guidelines review process takes a company and country agnostic approach, meaning we carefully examine partnership applications regardless of the partner’s origins and make a recommendation back to federal granting agencies based on available information.
• Public Safety, Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and federal granting councils are currently in the process of expanding the application of the Guidelines beyond the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Alliance Program.
• We will continue to expand the scope and implementation of the Guidelines to ensure that Canada’s world-leading research does not fall into the hands of malicious and hostile state actors.
• Once it is fully operational, the Research Security Centre will also play an important role in safeguarding Canada’s research from foreign hostile states. We are confident that the efforts of the Research Security Centre combined with a broader implementation of the Guidelines will significantly increase our ability to safeguard our research ecosystem.

Background:

Canada’s research and development ecosystem is driven by an open and collaborative environment that encourages domestic and international partnerships.

However, the combination of possessing advanced research and fostering a collaborative environment exposes Canada’s research and development experts to threat actors wanting to steal sensitive data, technology, intellectual property and knowledge in order to gain unfair military and economic advantage.

In September 2020, the Government of Canada announced that research related to COVID-19 was experiencing a higher volume of threats from foreign hostile actors. This statement encouraged researchers in the health sector to take extra precautions to protect their research, intellectual property, and knowledge development. An additional announcement was made in spring 2021, emphasizing that all areas of research are increasingly at risk due to Canada’s reliance on cyber infrastructure and the prevalence of cyber security attacks. In response to this concern, the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, Minister of Public Safety, and Minister of Health announced the intent to integrate national security considerations into the development, evaluation, and funding of research partnerships.

In consultation with the Government of Canada, universities, and associations that represent academic institutions, the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (Guidelines) were developed and published in July 2021. The Guidelines identify important national security considerations for all members of the Canadian research community – including, but not limited to, researchers, academic institutions, and research funders – who support or participate in research projects with partner organizations.

A key component of the Guidelines is the Risk Assessment Form, which researchers can use to identify and assess risks that their research partnerships may pose to Canada’s national security. The Risk Assessment Form asks two sets of questions that prompt the researcher to consider the nature of their research (Know Your Research) and their proposed research partners (Know Your Partner).

To pilot the integration of national security considerations into the development, evaluation and funding of research partnerships, the Guidelines were applied on a mandatory basis in the first phase to the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Alliance Grants program, recognizing that this program funds sensitive research areas that may carry higher security risks. While the Risk Assessment Form was initially mandatory for Alliance grant applications, the due diligence approach and methodology it supports can be widely applied to all research and innovation programs.

Current Status of Canadian Efforts in the area of Research Security

National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships:

During the pilot phase of the Guidelines implementation, a total of 48 applications were sent to Public Safety from NSERC to receive a national security review. These 48 applications made up roughly 4% of the total number of applications that NSERC received as part of the Alliance Grants program. Of the 48 applications received by Public Safety, 32 applications were deemed to pose an unmitigatable risk to Canada’s national security and were thus denied funding. In 13 cases, NSERC was advised by Public Safety Canada that the research partnership proposed in the application should not pose a risk to Canadian national security. One case was deemed to have an insufficient risk mitigation plan, but was given funding with the condition that the applicant implement mitigation measures suggested by Public Safety. The final two applications were withdrawn.

Safeguarding Science:

Since 2016, Public Safety Canada (PSC) has been leading the Safeguarding Science Initiative to provide interactive workshops to Canadian universities and the broader research community to equip them with the knowledge and tools required to protect their valuable research. In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, PSC continued to engage with Canada’s research community to raise awareness of research security issues through virtual Safeguarding Science workshops. This change supported the continuous delivery of the workshops during a time when the risks to research security were heightened. As a result, the initiative nearly doubled the number of workshops conducted, and the number of stakeholders who received a workshop from the previous year. In 2021, the workshop was delivered to twelve academic institutions and eight research institutions, reaching a total of 1,398 participants. Since its inception in 2016, the program has reached 51 academic institutions, 31 research institutions, and 23 other federal departments and agencies.

ISED’s “Safeguarding Your Research” Portal:

On Monday, September 14, 2020, the Government of Canada launched the Safeguarding Your Research online portal. The portal provides country-agnostic information, tools and guidance and raises awareness regarding the risk of research theft and espionage. In parallel, the Government of Canada released a policy statement on research security, co-signed by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry; the Minister of Health; and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

Research Security Centre:

As part of budget 2022, Public Safety Canada was allotted $12.6 million over 5 years and $2.9 million ongoing to build and maintain the Research Security Centre. The Centre includes 2 teams, one based in Ottawa that is tasked with implementing the Guidelines and developing research security tools and another team that has regional advisors based in Edmonton, Vancouver, Waterloo, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. The team of regional advisors will be responsible for directly engaging with universities and provinces in their areas of jurisdiction, assist researchers with their inquiries relating to research security, and deliver Safeguarding Science workshops.

Contacts:

Prepared by: Senior Policy Analyst [name and number not releasable]

Approved by: Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère, Acting Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, National and Cyber Security Branch, 613-990-4976

Date modified:

2023-05-29