Recommendation 21

The UK’s research base is operating in an increasingly contested global environment. The risks to research security are growing but the UK’s response is insufficiently developed. Though the recent breach at UK Biobank illustrated how research collaborations can be exploited by hostile actors, the government’s current “actor agnostic” approach has not translated into clear, practical guidance for those managing these risks on the ground. Too much responsibility is placed on individual academics, who do not have the resources to make informed judgements on national security risks. (Conclusion, Paragraph 89) 42