Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – On September 1, the Hoover Institution launched its participation in the Safeguarding the Entire Community of the US Research Ecosystem (SECURE) program, a $67 million initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. SECURE is dedicated to safeguarding the security and integrity of the American research ecosystem from foreign interference risks. Hoover is contributing to the program’s dual components: the SECURE Center, led by the University of Washington, and SECURE Analytics, led by Texas A&M University.
Under the leadership of Distinguished Research Fellow Glenn Tiffert, Hoover is developing data, tools, and analytical products to enhance the research community’s capacity to prevent and respond to research security risks. Tiffert is assembling a team of geopolitical analysts, data engineers, and programmers who will apply leading-edge qualitative and data science methodologies and expertise on sensitive research, threat types, and the evolving environment for international collaboration.
Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, the Burton J. and DeeDee McMurtry Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University and a leading expert in understanding and mitigating risk in complex systems, is guiding the project’s analysis of risk in research security. Secretary Condoleezza Rice, director of the Hoover Institution, chairs the advisory board for SECURE Analytics, comprising distinguished scientists, national security professionals, technology entrepreneurs, and a civil rights attorney.
“The Hoover Institution is honored to support SECURE’s efforts to enhance the resilience of our research ecosystem in a more challenging world,” said Secretary Rice.
Hoover researchers, in partnership with colleagues at Texas A&M University and Parallax Advanced Research, will develop risk-analysis platforms that will feature leading-edge scientometric search, analytic, and visualization capabilities to surface salient relationships, trends, and patterns in international collaboration, and serve informative outputs and interpretative context to higher education, industry, and nonprofit research-performing organizations. The platforms will rely on vast quantitative and qualitative datasets, including scientific publications, patents, corporate data, and policy documents. They will support incident and landscape analyses, as well as the publication of timely reports on research security risks.
Hoover scholars have pioneered empirical methods for in-depth study of research security as outlined in the publications Global Engagement: Rethinking Risk in the Research Enterprise (2020) and Eyes Wide Open: Ethical Risks in Research Collaboration with China (2021). The SECURE program empowers Hoover to enrich these data sources and methods for the benefit of the broader American research community, lowering burdens for institutions to safely participate in international collaboration.
Hoover researchers are committed to the highest standards of research integrity and ethics, transparency, and non-stigmatization. The team plans to design, develop, test, refine, and deploy products iteratively, in collaboration with the research community, and with rigorous outreach, testing, and validation protocols.
“We attach cardinal importance to earning the trust of community stakeholders in our data, methods, and products,” said Tiffert. “Our goals are to facilitate principled international collaboration, promote equity, and do no harm.”
For coverage opportunities, contact Jeffrey Marschner, 202-760-3187, jmarsch@stanford.edu.
