An MI5 intervention raises the research security stakes
UK academic institutions have been told to “immediately review” any ongoing or planned collaboration with the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) – MI5 is warning that the institute’s primary purpose is to fund academic research which improves the Chinese state security ministry’s “technical capability for espionage.”
The so-called security service espionage alert issued by MI5 states that the UK security services have identified more than 100-linked academics who have contributed to projects funded by the Chinese Ministry of State Security via the institute (which is also known as the China Academy for General Technology).
The projects have covered topics including AI, cybersecurity and covert communications systems. MI5 bluntly states that such research funding arrangements “pose a threat to UK national security.”
As well as the alert, which MI5 has taken the unprecedented step of putting into the public domain, security minister Dan Jarvis has written to all UK university vice chancellors, saying that they must “support their staff to end all arrangements with this company, preventing further benefit to the Chinese intelligence services.”
Links between the institute and China’s state security ministry are said to have been “obfuscated” in the past, and MI5 recognises that academics may have engaged with CGTRI “in good faith”. But it advises academics conducting research collaborations to establish the ultimate funding source – and suggests that institutions consider taking independent legal advice, as well as making use of Trusted Research guidance and RCAT.
The Guardian newspaper reports that some of the academics involved in collaboration were given awards or other honours as well as research funding – and that MI5 has "decided on a deterrence strategy" via a public alert, rather than pursuing all individual cases. None of the academics or institutions involved have been named.
Science minister Chris McDonald has said that Britain’s research base is “something we should be hugely proud of”:
“It’s a real national strength and it plays an important role in both our security and our prosperity. International collaboration will always be crucial to that success, but we can’t ignore the risks. As those risks continue to evolve, we’re making sure the sector has the advice and support it needs to protect valuable research while continuing to deliver the innovation, discoveries and breakthroughs that will shape the industries of the future.”
The public intervention by MI5 comes ahead of the UK government’s forthcoming research security strategy, which is due later this year, along with a promised research security fund.