Safeguarding federally funded innovation: Navigating the new era of research security
LIVE WEBINAR
Date: June 24, 2026
Time: 2pm ET / 11am PT
TITLE: Research security and the effort to protect federally funded innovation
Participants can earn 1 CPE credit
As the Pentagon places new emphasis on the security of technical research, universities, government agencies, and other institutions are under greater pressure to protect basic and applied research from foreign exploitation. The challenge goes beyond traditional espionage and IP theft, reaching into grantmaking, international collaboration, disclosure practices, and the policies meant to keep government-funded innovation from flowing to potential adversaries.
In this Breaking Defense webinar, we convene a panel of experts to examine how the US research security landscape is evolving, with an emphasis on new DoD policies and their implementation at the funder and grant recipient levels. The webinar will also explore how organizations are taking more risk-based approaches to their due diligence, from reviewing international collaboration footprints to identifying disclosure gaps and improving the use of additional open source and internal agency or research organization data.
AGENDA:
We’ll discuss the following:
- Why research security has emerged as a more urgent national security issue
- How foreign actors can exploit largely unclassified research environments
- DoD’s recent policy and decision-making updates
- How funding agencies and universities are approaching research-security compliance
- What partner models, including Canada’s, may suggest for US policy and practice
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- The policy push to better protect basic and applied research
- The tension between academic openness and national security requirements
- How institutions assess collaboration, funding, and disclosure risks
- The difference between inadvertent omissions and more serious misconduct
- How research security programs can integrate data from multiple functions
- What a measured, risk-based approach looks like in practice
1 CPE credit eligible
Field of Study: Business Management & Organization
In order to receive full credit, you must respond to all three polling questions asked during the live program.
The U.S. Department of Defense emphasizes the importance of research security as a national security issue, particularly regarding federally funded innovation. A webinar scheduled for June 24, 2026, will address how universities and government agencies are adapting to new policies aimed at preventing foreign exploitation of research. Participants will explore compliance strategies and the balance between academic openness and national security requirements.
- The Pentagon emphasizes the security of technical research.
- Universities and agencies face pressure to protect research from foreign exploitation.
- The webinar will cover new DoD policies and compliance approaches.