PRAGUE - Threats of illegitimate influence in science and higher education are growing as the international security situation evolves. What the threats look like and how to defend against them was therefore the topic of a roundtable Research security - strengthening institutional resilience. The meeting for the professional public in the Chamber of Deputies was organized by TOP 09 MP Helena Langšádlová together with the Ministries of Education and the Interior.
"Illegitimate influence peddling, typically illegal forms of lobbying, covert manipulation or the alienation of intellectual property are on the rise in higher education and research environments. The risks are also growing with the escalation of the geopolitical situation in recent years," warned Helena Langšádlová, who has been working on the issue of security in science, research and innovation for a long time.
"Illegitimate influence is now perceived by all countries in the Euro-Atlantic area as a real threat to their economic, security, reputational and other interests. This can also be seen at the level of the European Union, whose Commission recently adopted a Council Recommendation on strengthening research security," She added Langšádlová.
"The attempts to abuse the openness of the university and research environment by various, especially foreign, actors represent a risk. Unfortunately, cases of those who do not respect academic rights and freedoms or ethical values are not isolated excesses." one of the speakers at the round table, the Chief Director of the Internal Security and Police Education Section of the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, confirmed the words of MP Helena Langšádlová Jan Padourek. "The Ministry of the Interior has been working with the university and research community for a long time to be able to name these risks and to set up how to deal with them. Practice shows that it is not always possible to prevent all threats in their full breadth and complexity," he added Padourek.
"The need to strengthen the resilience of our society has been reflected over the past few years in documents such as the National Security Audit and the National Strategy for Countering Hybrid Activities and their action plans. The need to strengthen resilience to illegitimate influence at the level of the whole society, including the higher education and research environment, is also mentioned in Government Resolution 794 of 25 October 2023, which covers a wide range of activities of the Interior Ministry in this area, not only in higher education and research, but also in the state administration, local government and security forces," Paďourek further said.
"It is imperative to recognise that every institution involved in the research, development and innovation system bears its share of responsibility," said another speaker Radka Wildová, Chief Director of the Higher Education, Science and Research Section of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. She sees one of the main ways to resist illegitimate influence as the education of the professional community, both in the form of education through seminars, conferences or similar events, and in the form of a well-thought-out methodology.
"In the spring of 2023, we established the Interdepartmental Working Group on Combating Illegitimate Influence in the Higher Education and Research Environment, which is the starting point for further setting up appropriate support measures of a systemic or methodological nature at the national level. In June, we presented methodological documents and recommendations relating, for example, to the way due diligence is carried out on a minimal scale in order to mitigate the risks associated with certain types of international cooperation. At the same time, we enabled institutions to apply for funding for the systemic anchoring of the agenda through the Research Environment call in the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Programme," Wildová explained.
In total, more than a dozen people from the leadership of academic organizations and their homeland security departments spoke at the roundtable, as well as senior officials from the Ministries of Science, Research and Innovation, Education and the Interior. They shared their experiences of both the security situation in science and higher education and the measures and activities supporting it with an audience of experts. The closing session was given to Otakar Fojt, a scientific diplomat at the British Embassy, who presented the practice of security research in the United Kingdom.
Given the sensitivity of some of the information shared here, the roundtable was intended for closed professional company only. However, the know-how of its chairs will not remain behind closed doors. The speakers of the event have developed materials on strengthening resilience to illegitimate influence in higher education and research environments for other interested parties.
"The resilience of academia is integral to the resilience of our entire society. All the more so in these times of heightened security threats. Therefore, I very much appreciate the materials prepared by the participants of the roundtable and welcome them as one of the means to promote this resilience in the field of science and research," Langšádlová concluded.
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