US researchers and reviewers face increased scrutiny over foreign links

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is not doing enough to identify potential conflicts of interest that could see research knowledge transferred abroad, says a series of three reports by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.123

The warning comes as the inspector general’s office is investigating about 250 mostly Chinese or Chinese-American academics suspected of sharing confidential research information with colleagues in their home country and, in some cases, of running “shadow labs” in China to mirror ongoing US research.

The US government is particularly concerned about China’s Thousand Talents programme, which China’s government describes as an effort to repatriate Chinese expertise from abroad but which Trump administration officials see as …