More than 100 researchers who received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been removed from the NIH research system for failing to disclose interests with foreign countries since an internal investigation was launched in 2018, NIH officials told members of Congress.
Concerned about undue influence by foreign governments on U.S. researchers, the NIH, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, began an investigation into foreign funding of researchers in 2018 to rank whether researchers and institutions receiving NIH grants were receiving significant financial support from foreign governments without disclosing it, whether intellectual property information, such as the content of grant applications, was transferred to foreign countries and other other entities, and whether peer reviewers are complying with confidentiality requirements.
Michael Lauer, NIH’s director of extramural research, told lawmakers Thursday (April 22) at a Senate hearing on how to protect U.S. biomedical research from undue foreign influence that the initiative is ongoing and that, to date, NIH has identified more than 500 potentially problematic researchers, involving more than 200 research institutions.
He said some investigations have ultimately turned out to be mere misunderstandings, but some have uncovered problems. He said, “More than 100 researchers have been removed from the NIH ecosystem in various ways, such as resignation, termination, early retirement or internal requests.”
He also said about 34 cases were referred to the DOH Office of Inspector General for further investigation, and some were successfully prosecuted or reached civil settlements.
Lauer did not specify the ethnic backgrounds of the researchers investigated and fired during the hearing. But he did reveal in an internal briefing to the Senior Advisory Committee last year that 82 percent of the 189 researchers surveyed at 87 funded institutions at the time were Asian researchers because they were “targeted by Chinese talent acquisition programs.
Song Guo Zheng, a professor of rheumatology who led a team of autoimmune researchers at Ohio State University and Pennsylvania State University, was one of them. He was indicted and pleaded guilty last November to lying about his participation in China’s “Thousand Talents Program” and his collaboration with a Chinese university when he applied for research funding from the NIH.
In another case involving the NIH and China’s “Thousand Talents Program,” former University of Florida professor Lin Yang pleaded guilty to concealing his involvement in China’s “Thousand Talents Program” while receiving funding from the NIH for muscle imaging technology. He was indicted in February for concealing his involvement in China’s “Thousand Talents Program” while receiving a grant from the NIH for muscle imaging technology and for setting up his own company in China. He returned to China in 2019 and has yet to return to the United States.
China uses talent acquisition programs such as the “Thousand Talents Program” to attract foreign researchers with high salaries. Washington is concerned that Beijing is using these researchers to steal U.S. scientific research, trade secrets and intellectual property for Beijing’s strategy to catch up with the United States economically, militarily and technologically.
Richard Burr, a Republican U.S. senator from North Carolina, said at Thursday’s hearing, “There is a coordinated operation by people from China who are supported by the Chinese government to get educated in the United States, work for 10 years, and then bring back as much as they can learn, save or steal to the the Chinese government. The Chinese government is also trying to recruit overseas Chinese and researchers of other nationalities who might be attracted to the benefits that the Chinese government can offer.”
But the NIH’s investigative action has also raised concerns among some who believe it could trigger a chilling effect in the Chinese-American scientific community and affect some normal cooperation between U.S. and Chinese scientists.
In taking bold and practical actions to ensure the integrity of research and guard against foreign threats, NIH recognizes the impact these actions could have on foreign researchers, Lauer said at Thursday’s hearing.
He emphasized that “most Chinese researchers working in the United States are committed to expanding knowledge that benefits humanity and are doing so in a fair and honest environment. It is important to emphasize this when we have the opportunity. Importantly, the issues identified by NIH’s deliberations also involve people who are not foreign-born or of Chinese background. Those who violate relevant laws and policies represent only a small percentage of the scientific workforce working at U.S. research institutions.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee, said the U.S.’s global leadership in biomedicine is tied to its ability to collaborate with researchers around the world, but successful collaboration is built on trust, and trust requires transparency. If researchers participate in foreign talent programs, or commit to patenting in foreign countries, or move their labs to other countries, they should fully disclose that information when applying for federal funding, she said.
“It’s not that researchers can’t have other affiliations, but they have to be transparent about it,” she said.
Recent Comments