Balancing Research Security and Open Science

Summary

Sensitive research is often of critical importance to innovation, defence, public health, and agriculture, and its findings inform broader scientific advancements. However, to pursue sensitive research projects, researchers and institutions need to minimize the possibility of misuse by developing and adopting appropriate research security measures, including limiting access where appropriate.

Canada’s research ecosystem relies on national, international, and cross-sectoral collaborations to conduct world-class research that offers significant scientific and societal benefits to Canada and its allies. Dynamic geopolitics, rapid technological advancement, and the potential for actors to misuse or misappropriate Canadian research highlight the need for all research ecosystem participants to adopt a proactive and collaborative approach to research security that addresses current and potential threats while balancing open science and innovation.

Balancing Research Security and Open Science explores measures to identify sensitive research, determine when it is of concern, and how to safeguard it throughout the three phases of the research process: the research design phase, the active research phase, and the post-research phase. It also considers those enabling factors that support the implementation of research security measures and open science.

The sponsor:

Defence Research and Development Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, with nine supporting departments

The question:

What does current evidence suggest for identifying and protecting dual-use research of concern while balancing open science and innovation?

This project was supported by the Government of Canada, through the Strategic Science Fund.

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Key Findings

The level of sensitivity of research may change throughout the research process; identification and safeguarding measures may be revisited prior to, during, and after the research phase to account for changing contexts and to maintain a balance between openness and security.
Identifying sensitive research of concern, and implementing and complying with measures to safeguard it, are shared responsibilities among researchers, institutions, and governments. These actors are involved in greater or lesser capacities at various stages of the research process.
Conditions enabling the success of measures to identify and safeguard sensitive research of concern include: support systems for knowledge-sharing, capacity-building and training, financial resources, and enforcement of compliance. These conditions support both research security and open science initiatives since they rely on the same foundations.
Due to a quickly changing geopolitical context and the rapid pace of technological advancement in research, all actors in the research ecosystem need to be aware of both research security and their role in it. The modern research mindset requires all actors to be capable of adaptation, and to be equipped with the tools and resources necessary to participate in the protection and preservation of the Canadian research ecosystem, encompassing research security and open science, as well as innovation, ethics and privacy, Indigenous rights, and responsible conduct of research writ large.