The Research Security Monitor 2025 underlines that academic freedom entails academic responsibility in keeping scientific cooperation both open and secure.
At the end of February 2026, the European Commission published its first Research Security Monitor 2025 and the European Parliament (STOA) its annual Academic Freedom Monitor 2025.
The publications come at a time of heightened awareness that systems based on academic freedom need to be safeguarded through research security. At the same time, the publications are published in the context of ongoing discussions on the next Research and Innovation Framework Programme (FP10) and on the European Research Area (ERA) Act, which aims to include provisions for academic freedom as well as research security.
The first edition of the Research Security Monitor 2025, which is a report on the implementation of the Council Recommendation, was published together with the second implementing report on the global approach to R&I (see SwissCore article). It is a planned outcome of the ERA Action on Research Security under the second ERA Policy Agenda (2025-2027).
The Research Security Monitor provides a qualitative baseline of research security policies and measures across the EU, highlighting selected examples and practical insights. It shows a strong EU‑wide consensus on the need to keep international research cooperation both open and secure. This approach places responsibility mainly with research‑performing organisations, linking academic freedom with academic responsibility, while recognising the need for guidance and support from public authorities. At the same time, the Monitor reveals significant differences in the maturity of approaches between and across EU Member States, creating potential security vulnerabilities and an uneven playing field within ERA. Regarding international cooperation, it indicates that the EU is willing to further strengthen cooperation with international partners, as well as within multilateral forums including the OECD, the G7 and NATO, to align policies.
By explicitly linking research security with academic freedom, the Academic Freedom Monitor 2025 indicates that the EU approach to research security is one that fully respects academic freedom. At the same time, academic freedom is recognised as a core value of the European Research Area and is increasingly addressed through crosscutting initiatives (see SwissCore article), notably in the European Parliament.
The recently published Academic Freedom Monitor assesses the state of academic freedom across the EU and globally. It examines key pressures on academic freedom, including political polarisation, developments in the US, commercialisation of academia, and foreign interference. The report confirms that while the EU still performs comparatively well globally, academic freedom is under increasing pressure in almost all Member States. Moreover, the findings reaffirm the relevance of policy options proposed in the 2024 Monitor, while also calling for new measures to address foreign interference, research security risks, political polarisation, and to position Europe as a core region for academic freedom, with the active involvement of the academic community. The report concludes with EU‑level legislative and non‑legislative policy options to strengthen the protection of academic freedom in Member States.
Finally, whether academic freedom and research security will be part of the upcoming ERA Act still remains unclear, but more clarity is expected at the end of 2026. However, both issues are also relevant in the ongoing discussion on the upcoming FP10. In this sense, on 24 March 2026, MEP C. Ehler (Rapporteur for the FP10 Regulation) and MEP R. Repasi (Rapporteur for the Specific Programme) presented their draft reports for the FP10 Regulation and the Specific Programme in the ITRE Committee, which include additional provisions on academic freedom and research security.