The European Commission published non-binding guidelines for Higher Education Institutions and Research Preforming Organisations to mitigate Foreign Interference.
On 18 January 2022, the European Commission (EC) published a toolkit on Foreign Interference that has been co-created with Member States and stakeholders and contributes to the European Research Area Policy Agenda (see SwissCore article) action on academic freedom. It should serve as a summary of best practices without being exhaustive nor binding.
According to the EC, Foreign Interference “occurs when activities are carried out by, or on behalf of, a foreign state-level actor, which is coercive, covert, deceptive, or corrupting and are contrary to the sovereignty, values, and interest of the European Union”. It involves not only state actors but also their “proxies who deploy a wide range of conventional and unconventional tactics to achieve their objectives”.
The guidelines are especially relevant as research and innovation activities have increasingly become more internationalised and expanded beyond national borders in recent decades. The EC explains that even if international cooperation contributes to the “creation, accumulation of knowledge and innovative outputs and are nurtured by international networks and academic and technological cooperation”, it also brings several risks and challenges, especially when cooperation is outside the EU, that needs to be properly assessed and managed.
The idea is not to limit international collaboration and “remain as open as possible and as closed as necessary” with guidelines for the Research Performing Organisations and Higher Education Institutions. The aim of the document is to inform Higher Education Institutions and Research Performing Organisations on the risks of Foreign Interference in the context of their increasing internationalisation and as possible targets of Foreign Interference. The EC indicates that Higher Education Institutions and Research Performing Organisations are one of the possible targets for Foreign Interference due to their essential role in society, their cooperation with the public, private and third sectors, and the creation of knowledge and innovative new technologies. They normally manage large-scale information and communications technology infrastructures, whereby cyberattacks can be especially disruptive.
The toolkit suggests four key areas to tackle Foreign Interference: Values, governance, partnerships and cybersecurity. The category of values comprises the identification of countries and partner institutions, where academic freedom is at risk; the realisation of a vulnerability assessment to understand external pressures on academic freedom and integrity in the institutions; strengthening commitment to academic freedom and integrity at the institutional and individual level; and continuing cooperation with partners in repressive settings. In the area of governance, the publication of a Code of Conduct for Foreign Interference is foreseen, and the establishment of a Foreign Interference committee that will be integrated within the existing institutional structure. The area of partnerships proposes the development of general prerequisites for implementing a risk management system and establishing a sound procedure for developing robust partnership agreements. Finally, in the category of cybersecurity, three actions are suggested: Raising awareness of cybersecurity risks; the detection and prevention of cybersecurity attacks from Foreign Interference actors; and the response and recovery from cybersecurity attacks from Foreign Interference.
Consequently, Research Performing Organisations and Higher Education Institutions can tailor the proposed guidelines on Foreign Interference to their needs with the aim to “safeguard their fundamental values, namely academic freedom, integrity and institutional autonomy, and protect their staff, students, research findings and assets.”