What is research security and why does it matter for global science?

Open and collaborative research has long been a foundation of scientific progress. It fuels innovation, strengthens economies, and helps tackle global challenges from climate change to health and digital transformation.

But as strategic competition and geopolitical tensions intensify and emerging technologies from artificial intelligence to quantum capture headlines, governments are placing new emphasis on research security – protecting research institutions and scientists from interference, espionage and violations of research integrity.

New OECD data show just how fast this change is happening. In 2025, countries reported 250 policy initiatives related to research security, almost ten times more than in 2018. Over the same period, the number of countries with such measures rose from 12 to 41. This rapid growth underscores a major policy shift: science and technology are increasingly seen not only as engines of innovation but as pillars of national and economic security.

Research security means anticipating, preventing and managing risks to the research and innovation system, including the misappropriation of R&D that could harm national or economic security; foreign interference or malign influence; and violations of the freedom of research. It focuses on avoiding the undesirable transfer of critical knowledge and technology (including dual-use) through proportionate and risk-based safeguards that keep international co-operation as open as possible and as closed as necessary.

Typical research security measures include transparency and disclosure requirements, risk assessments and due diligence on international partners, awareness campaigns, and guidance to help researchers identify and manage threats, as well as robust governance frameworks and the use of national contact points to advise institutions. These approaches aim to protect legitimate national interests while upholding freedom of inquiry and international collaboration.

The OECD’s Research Security Portal within the EC-OECD STIP Compass database of STI policies provides the most comprehensive overview of national initiatives in this field, tracking how policies evolve and what risks they aim to address.

Between 2019 and 2024, countries moved from awareness campaigns and benchmarking exercises toward more structured and formal policy tools. Close to 70% of countries with research security initiatives have now developed targeted strategies or regulations, soft law and dedicated oversight mechanisms, with the latter making up 40% of policy instrument types.  This shift signals that governments are tightening research protection frameworks as the policy area matures.

For example, the Netherlands introduced National Knowledge Security Guidelines and a National Contact Point for Knowledge Security. The United States issued a Presidential Memorandum in 2021 to protect government-funded R&D from foreign interference, followed by detailed implementation guidance in 2024. And Korea established legal measures to protect sensitive information in national research projects. At the international level, research security has entered policy co-ordination forums, with a Council of Europe Recommendation on enhancing research security (2024) and G7 Best Practices for Secure and Open Research (2024) marking steps toward shared standards.

The pick-up in pace of research security efforts comes in a context where the line between scientific, economic, and national security continues to blur. Many governments now align their science, technology and innovation policies with broader economic security goals, supporting critical and emerging technologies while protecting against knowledge leakage. 

According to the OECD Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Outlook 2025, defence R&D budgets have increased by 75% over the past decade, nearly twice the pace of overall R&D spending. Energy is the only other sector that has witnessed a similar increase. 

Research security also cuts across other STI policy priorities, as OECD analysis finds tight linkage between research security, integrity and reproducibility, as well as STI governance and international co-operation more broadly.  In several countries, research security is also embedded in areas such as ethics and governance of emerging technologies, access to data and software, and digital transformation of research performing organisations.  

At the same time, there have been substantial increases in public research investment in strategic fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and biotechnology, where there is intense competition between countries and research outcomes can have both civilian and military applications. “Securitisation” of science is reshaping global research co-operation, as countries seek to balance open collaboration with tighter control over strategic technologies. 

International collaboration remains vital but is showing signs of strain. While the share of internationally co-authored scientific publications in OECD countries climbed from 2% in 1970 to 27% in 2023, this growth is now losing momentum. 

This slowdown reflects tightening national oversight and growing geopolitical sensitivities around international partnerships. Many of these reflect legitimate concerns about misappropriation of scientific know-how, dual-use research or intellectual property rights, yet they also test the principles of open science. 

Some initiatives explicitly address co-operation with specific partners, notably China, reflecting evolving geopolitical realities. Still, Chinese scientists continue to make substantial contributions to global research efforts, highlighting the importance of maintaining openness even amid heightened vigilance. 

The challenge for policymakers is to strike the right balance between security, openness, and international collaboration. Too little security can expose research to malign influence and misuse, while too much can stifle innovation and beneficial collaboration. To get that balance right, governments should work with the research community to implement proportionate, risk-based measures that protect research and promote trusted international collaborations. Key priorities include: 

• Building capacity in universities and research institutions to assess and manage risks. 
• Enhancing transparency on security threats and sharing best practices internationally. 
• Embedding research security in open science frameworks, not in opposition to them. 
• Fostering dialogue among science, security and industry actors. 

Through initiatives such as the OECD Research Security Portal and the STI Outlook 2025, the OECD supports countries in monitoring trends, benchmarking policies, and learning from one another. The OECD through its Global Science Forum is also collaborating with experts from 20 countries, to investigate how research security intersects with other policy priorities, risk is assessed and mitigated, awareness is raised, and the impacts of security measures can be evaluated. 

Protecting research does not mean closing doors. When managed well, research security can reinforce trust, integrity and resilience in the global science system, ensuring that international collaboration remains a driver of shared progress rather than a source of vulnerability.