Research security: New guidelines for project collaborations and travel to high-risk countries

The URIS guidelines, which have been put in place to increase security in international research and innovation collaboration and ensure that AU's knowledge does not fall into the wrong hands, have been expanded.

The additional guidelines cover travel to high-risk countries, as well as project collaboration and offboarding. The new guidelines has come into effect, and in practice they will apply from this date.

High-risk countries

Travel to high-risk countries must be approved in writing by a head of department/school (institut) or a manager at the same level. Staff travelling to high-risk countries must use special travel smartphones and travel computers with limited access to AU’s data and systems.

High-risk countries are designated by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service in their threat assessments. Currently, Iran, China and Russia are designated as high-risk countries. This list is subject to change in response to geopolitical developments.

Check the latest threat assessments from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service

Project collaborations

A risk assessment must be performed on all project collaborations for which external funding is being applied or which involve written collaboration agreements between the participants. There are heightened security requirements for project collaborations involving critical or controlled research, for example background checks on collaboration partners.

These new guidelines follow the recommendations issued by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science’s Committee on Guidelines for International Research and Innovation Collaboration (URIS).

In addition, checklists for offboarding of staff have been updated to include research security considerations.

More information

Read more about security guidelines for international research collaboration