Research Administration

Foreign Influence

Foreign influence is the inappropriate or inadvertent sharing of confidential and/or proprietary information, intellectual property, or data of grant applications, unpublished research or technologies. Recently, the NIH has identified at least 100 instances of foreign influence on extramural research. And, investigators at more than 65 institutions failed to report foreign ties, funding sources, and conflicts of interest.

This is a reminder that disclosing all support - foreign and domestic - is fundamental to transparency in research funding. UTMB policies help to raise awareness of foreign influence and reiterates the regulatory requirements aimed at preventing it.

What to Disclose

All faculty funded by or submitting to NIH must disclose all resources or "other support" made available to a researcher regardless of its monetary value and regardless of whether the support is based at the current grantee institution. All investigators are required to disclose the following:

In addition, NIH grant recipients must identify and disclose whether there are any foreign components in its research projects. Foreign components include:

  • Performance of work by a researcher or recipient in a foreign location, whether or not NIH grant funds are expended; and/or
  • Performance of work by a researcher in a foreign location employed or paid for by a foreign organization, whether-or-not NIH grant funds are expended.