Question Period Note: Research Security

The federal government is taking concrete measures to protect cutting-edge Canadian research, development, and technology that is being actively targeted by foreign state actors to advance their geopolitical, economic, and security interests.

• The Government of Canada takes the issue of safeguarding Canada’s research enterprise very seriously.
• We are aware that foreign state actors are actively targeting Canadian academic and research institutions, as well as public and private organizations, to collect sensitive personal data, scientific knowledge, and gain access to technology.
• To build a strong economy and improve the lives of all Canadians, we need a research environment that is as open and collaborative as possible, and as safeguarded as necessary.
• That is why the Government implemented the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships and created the Safeguarding Your Research online portal to help assess and minimize risks, and protect Canada’s research enterprise.
• The Government of Canada also continues to work closely with the academic and private sectors, as well as our closest international allies, to develop ways to protect research.
• Since 2016, Public Safety Canada has been leading the Safeguarding Science initiative to provide interactive workshops to Canadian universities and the broader research community to equip them with the knowledge and tools required to protect their valuable research.
• In 2021, the Department has delivered the workshop to ten academic institutions and led two sessions with research institutions, reaching a total of 1,160 participants. Since its inception in 2016, the program has reached 45 academic institutions, 28 research institutions.
• This outreach to academia is complemented by the Government of Canada-Universities Working Group, which was established in 2018 to collaboratively identify, share, and promote best practices to minimize security risks, protect data and intellectual property. The group meets regularly and continues to develop resources, as appropriate, in response to emerging issues across the Canadian research enterprise.
• In 2020, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) also delivered briefings to more than 225 institutions, organizations, companies, etc. in the academic and research community, including biopharmaceutical and life sciences industries, reaching 2,000 individuals, to increase awareness of research security in the context of COVID-19 vaccines and treatment.
• Moving forward, CSIS will continue to engage vulnerable Canadian sectors to ensure they are aware of threats of espionage and foreign interference targeting their intellectual property.
• When criminal activity targeting Canada’s research sector is suspected, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigates with a view to supporting criminal charges and prosecutions. The RCMP works with security and law enforcement partners to enforce Canada’s laws and protect our vital research sector.

Canadian research, innovation, and development is fuelled by an open and collaborative environment that encourages international partnerships and is supported by the Government of Canada’s principles of open science. Open science is a key component for Canada to remain an attractive destination for conducting cutting-edge research. However, this environment, coupled with the advanced nature of Canadian-led research, makes the Canadian research community—public, private and academic sectors—vulnerable to threat actors who want to exploit these conditions to gain access to our world-class knowledge, data, and expertise.
Foreign threat actors have a number of means to acquire advanced Canadian research and intellectual property: academic collaborations, partnerships, cyber-attacks, purchases of Canadian companies or majority/minority shareholdings, as well as the exploitation or coercion of vulnerable individuals.
While fields with applications in weapons of mass destruction programs have traditionally been the most sought-after target of foreign threat actors, this has broadened in recent years to include research relating to dual-use technologies (i.e. technologies with both civilian and military applications). This includes, but is not limited to artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and bio- and nanotechnology.
It is important to note that the threat also includes research conducted in humanities and social sciences. For example, research in social sciences often gathers and uses personal data (including medical history), lifestyle information, socioeconomic, demographic, as well as other personal/confidential parameters. This type of information could be used for a number of nefarious purposes, such as potentially feeding into artificial intelligence algorithms to populate data sets associated with certain individuals, groups, nationalities or ethnicities and support the suppression of human rights.
National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships
The Government released the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships on July 12, 2021. The Guidelines were developed in consultation with the Government of Canada-Universities Working Group.
All researchers are encouraged to use the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships to assess all research partnerships, with any partner or funder, to protect their work.
A phased, risk-based process is being used to implement the guidelines, starting with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s (NSERC) Alliance Grants for applications involving a private sector partner. The national security community (PS, CSIS, CSE, and DND), ISED, and the granting agencies are currently working in collaboration with the research community to operationalize the national security assessment process and structure necessary to implement these guidelines and further expand their application.

Safeguarding Science

Since 2016, Public Safety Canada has led the Safeguarding Science initiative in partnership with 10 other federal departments and agencies to raise awareness amongst stakeholders—including private companies, federal research labs, and universities—of the risks of proliferation, dual-use technology, research security, and cybersecurity. The initiative informs participants about tools to help recognize and mitigate the risks Canadian institutions are facing, including those posed to their research and development. In 2021, Safeguarding Science has been delivered to 1,160 participants at 9 universities and 2 federal labs across the country, with plans to hold additional workshops at Canadian universities throughout the remainder of the year and beyond. Through Safeguarding Science, additional resources for the Canadian academic and R&D sectors have been developed to enhance institutional capacity to address priority research security issues. This includes online course offerings available on the Safeguarding Your Research online portal and Research Security Information Updates (in the form of a newsletter) regularly posted on the Public Safety Canada website.
The Safeguarding Your Research Online Portal
In September 2020, the Government of Canada, in collaboration with the university sector, launched the Safeguarding Your Research online portal. The portal serves as a public resource to raise awareness and provide guidance and best practices on identifying and mitigating potential security risks, with information on risk awareness and best practices, a research due diligence guide, links to relevant domestic and international content, and guidance on how to identify and mitigate research security risks. The portal is similar to recent public guidance issued by Canada’s allies, such as the United Kingdom via its Trusted Research portal, Australia via the Guidelines to Counter Foreign Interference in the University, and the United States via various legislative and policy statements.
CSIS Academic Outreach
In keeping with its longstanding engagement with the academic sector, over the past few years, CSIS has provided a number of virtual briefings on the topic of research security to academia, research institutions and private sector companies in the biopharmaceutical, life sciences, and data science sectors. This initiative was developed in cooperation with government and academic partners including Universities Canada, U15 and Tech-Access Canada. In addition to presentations to universities and academic associations, CSIS also presented on this topic to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and at the Canadian Science Policy Conference, the University of Saskatchewan’s Global Café, the CASIS West Coast Conference and the GovTech Summit. In total, CSIS contacted more than 225 entities across Canada and briefed at least 2000 Canadian stakeholders during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

None