Foreign Country of Risk Sponsored or Affiliated Activity

Any foreign government sponsored talent recruitment program or other foreign government sponsored or affiliated activity, as defined below, of a Foreign Country of Risk.

a. Foreign Government-Sponsored Talent Recruitment Program. An effort directly or indirectly organized, managed, or funded by a foreign government to recruit science and technology professionals or students (regardless of citizenship or national origin, and whether having a full-time or part-time position). Some foreign government-sponsored talent recruitment programs operate with the intent to import or otherwise acquire from abroad, sometimes through illicit means, proprietary technology or software, unpublished data and method, and intellectual property to further the military modernization goals and/or economic goals of a foreign government. Many, but not all, programs aim to incentivize the targeted individual to physically relocate the foreign state for the above purpose. Some programs allow for or encourage continued employment at U.S. research facilities or receipt of Federal research funds while concurrently working at and/or receiving compensation from a foreign institution, and some directive participants not to disclose their participation to U.S. entities. Compensation could take many forms including cash, research funding, complimentary foreign travel, honorific titles, career advancement opportunities, promised future compensation, or other types or remuneration or consideration, including in-kind compensation.

b.  Other Foreign Government Sponsored or Affiliated Activity. Includes the following activities directly or indirectly involving a foreign country of risk entity, as defined below:

(1) Employment.

(2) Other support, contractual or otherwise, direct and indirect, including current and pending private and public sources of funding or income, both foreign and domestic. For researchers, other support includes all foreign country of risk entity resources made available, directly or indirectly, to a researcher in support of and/or related to all of their professional R&D efforts, including resources provided directly to the individual rather than through the research institution, and regardless of whether or not they have monetary value (e.g., even if the support received is only in-kind, such as office/laboratory space, equipment, supplies, or employees). This includes resource and/or financial support from all foreign and domestic entities, including but not limited to, gifts, financial support for laboratory personnel, and participation of student and visiting researchers supported by other sources of funding. This further includes compensation, for example, current or promises of future: grants, awards, funding, scholarship, appointment, sabbatical, travel, university directed funding, and honoraria.

(3) Current or pending participation in, or applications to programs, e.g., grant programs, sponsored by foreign governments, instrumentalities, or entities, if not a Foreign Government-Sponsored Talent Recruitment Program, as defined. Associated contracts, upon request by DOE, must be disclosed, in addition to the fact of participation.

(4) Positions and appointments, both domestic and foreign, including affiliations with foreign entities or governments. This includes titled academic, professional, or institutional appointments whether or not remuneration is received, and whether full-time, part-time, or voluntary (including adjunct, visiting, or honorary).

(5) The following, considered alone, are not included in this definition:

(a) In-kind support under a fundamental research collaboration for the sole purpose of co-authorship to be made publicly available; and

(b) Support related specifically to implementing a DOE program-sponsored international collaboration project and within the scope of a DOE-level or U.S. Government-level bilateral or multilateral international agreement.

These programs are often part of broader whole-of-government strategies to reduce costs associated with basic research while focusing investment on military development or dominance in emerging technology sectors.

For purposes of this definition, a foreign country of risk entity includes the following:

(i)        any foreign government or foreign government agency or instrumentality thereof of a Foreign Country of Risk;

(ii)       any form of business enterprise or legal entity organized, chartered, or incorporated under the laws of a Foreign Country of Risk; and

(iii)      any form of business enterprise or legal entity which is owned, controlled, or influenced[1] by an entity described in paragraphs 9(i) or 9(ii) above, or by any foreign national of a Foreign Country of Risk.