On Monday, August 31, the US Department of Justice announced that Ohio State University has agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle civil charges for failing to disclose certain faculty and staff relationships with the Chinese government, universities, and state-owned research institutions to the federal government.
The settlement involves research funding provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to Ohio State University spanning from November 2012 to August 2023. The funding required project leaders and co-leaders to disclose any foreign government support they received.
According to the US Department of Justice, federal law has prohibited the use of federal research funds in collaboration with the Chinese government, universities, or state-owned enterprises since 2011.
The Department of Justice alleges that Ohio State University has known since 2014, through the annual faculty activities report on campus, about the relationships of some faculty and staff participating in federal research projects with Chinese universities and state-owned research institutions, but did not disclose this information to NASA or the NSF.
Furthermore, in 2019, Ohio State University became aware that a project leader involved in a NASA research project had participated in China’s “Thousand Talents Program,” established by China to recruit talent with access to foreign technology and intellectual property. Ohio State University did not report this information to NASA and the NSF until 2023.
The US government has also identified multiple Ohio State University employees involved in related research projects who have relationships, collaborations, or received funding from China.
Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate from the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice stated that American universities receiving federal research support must fully disclose all sources of foreign funding in their grant applications.
He emphasized that the Department of Justice will continue to hold universities accountable for failing to meet disclosure requirements. These disclosure requirements aim to protect research integrity and ensure that research outcomes supported by federal funds are not improperly transferred.
Ohio State University is a public university located in Columbus, Ohio.
In a separate case highlighted by the US Department of Justice in 2021, a rheumatology professor, Songguo Zheng, was sentenced to imprisonment and ordered to pay compensation for concealing his participation in China’s Thousand Talents Program and his relationships with Chinese research institutions when applying for research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Zheng was arrested in May 2020 upon arriving in Anchorage, Alaska, on a chartered flight en route to China. At the time of his arrest, he was found carrying multiple bags containing laptops, phones, USB drives, silver bars, expired Chinese passports of family members, property contracts in China, and other items.
Court documents revealed that since 2013, Zheng had been involved in the Thousand Talents Program and had been using his research conducted in the US for the benefit of Beijing. He did not report his activities to Ohio State University or disclose conflicts of interest to the NIH.
Acting Inspector General of the National Science Foundation Megan E. Wallace stated that federal agencies rely on recipient institutions, including universities, to fully disclose their funding sources and personnel, including foreign sponsorship.
“If recipient institutions fail to disclose this information, it undermines the fairness of federal funding processes and may jeopardize taxpayers’ funds and America’s research interests,” she said.
It is reported that the National Science Foundation invests billions of taxpayer dollars annually to advance American innovation and national security research, with a significant portion supporting US universities.