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Research Fortnight 14 Oct 2026
Universities face ‘struggle’ to vet China funding after MI5 warning
By Isaac Barbosa
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Image: Framestock , via Adobe Stock
Security service intervention prompts call for more intelligence sharing to help universities with research security
Some universities may struggle to vet funding from China, experts have warned, after MI5 said academics should confirm the “ultimate funding source” when conducting research with Chinese institutions.
On 30 September, MI5 issued a warning after finding that more than 100 UK-linked academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which it said exists primarily to advance the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s espionage capabilities.
It called on academics to cease work with the institute and “establish the ultimate funding source when conducting any research collaboration with Chinese institutions, to ensure CGTRI is not involved”. The security service also warned that future CGTRI-funded collaborations could have “potential criminal consequences”.
Financial vulnerability
Nicola Searle, an innovation scholar specialising in intellectual property and research security at Goldsmiths, University of London, questioned whether some institutions could identify the ultimate source of research funding.
“Larger, well-resourced universities are likely well placed to vet such funding,” she told Research Professional News. “Smaller and poorly resourced universities will struggle.”
Searle argued that universities’ biggest research-security vulnerability was their financial position. Institutions facing severe financial pressures and job cuts are more exposed to risk, she said, warning that “research security without financial and job security is not a long-term solution”.
Searle said “all eyes are on” an upcoming research security fund to help universities meet the rising costs of protecting research from hostile actors and other threats.
Information gap
As the MI5 warning was published, science minister Chris McDonald said the government was “making sure the sector has the advice and support it needs to protect valuable research”.
Sapna Marwaha, founder and chief executive of research security and governance advisory firm Formation Consultancy, cited universities’ inability to access information held by the government as a “longstanding challenge”.
“Universities are often expected to make decisions about partnerships using information that is necessarily more limited than that available to government and intelligence agencies,” she said. “Universities are generally relying on a combination of commercial and open-source tools, none of which provide a full picture on their own.”
Marwaha said that while universities could not be expected to have unrestricted access to intelligence, “when government has access to critical information that universities would struggle to uncover themselves, there needs to be effective mechanisms for sharing it”.
Security support
Andrew James, professor of innovation management and policy at the University of Manchester—who authored a recent report on research security awareness among academics—said the government’s anticipated research security strategy was “an opportunity to provide universities and academics with clearer, more practical direction on how to interpret research security risks”, particularly with regard to China.
However, he warned against simply creating a list of high-risk partners in research collaboration, as these could “quickly become outdated”.
James also said the research security fund was “likely to provide resources to strengthen specialist capacity within universities”, which would build academic confidence in addressing the requirements of research security.
View this article on Research Professional