Research security

The University of Manitoba recognizes the value of open science, partnerships, and international collaboration and believes these values are the catalyst for greater innovation, research, and development. We aim to facilitate open science and systematically assess and mitigate risks to protect researchers and their research from harm, theft, and foreign interference.

The University of Manitoba aims to avoid bias, racial profiling, or unfair targeting when assessing all partnerships and international collaborations. As such The University of Manitoba does not maintain a “Restricted Foreign Universities” list or blanket policies surrounding a single nation. We aim to assess all international research partnerships as a base level of due diligence. If an institution or entity is partly or fully sanctioned, is involved in military end-use technologies or, is complicit in forced labour or human rights violations, a decision on the future of the partnership is elevated to the Vice-President (Research and International) or the full President’s Executive Team.

However, the University of Manitoba is committed to aligning with the Government of Canada’s Sensitive Technology Research and Affiliations of Concern (STRAC) Policy, published January 16th, 2024:

“Research grant and funding applications submitted by a university or affiliated research institution to the federal granting councils and the Canada foundation for Innovation involving research that advances a sensitive technology research area will not be funded if any of the researchers involved in activities supported by the grant are affiliated with, or in receipt of funding or in-kind support, from a university, research institute or laboratory connected to military, national defence or state security entities of foreign state actors that could pose a risk to Canada’s national security.”

The Government of Canada has released a list of sensitive research areas and a list of named research organizations to provide the framework to assess whether the new policy applies. The University of Manitoba would like to emphasize that “protecting Canadian research is our top priority”.

Please note that the Office of Research Security is available to assist with risk assessment and risk mitigation for individual grants and contracts and where possible. We will strive to minimize the administrative burden to our research community.

Research Security Statement (PDF)