Guidance on Malign Foreign Talent Programs

July 27, 2026

The Government of Canada has provided guidance on the risks posed by Malign Foreign Talent Programs (MFTP) and the best practices that researchers can do to spot MFTP and mitigate the risks. MFTP is similar in context to what is known as Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs (MFTRP) in the US. Participation in these programs poses various risks to researchers, including but not limited to: loss or unwanted transfer of research and intellectual properties, perceived or actual conflict of interest or conflict of commitment, creating barriers on their eligibility to participate in certain research projects, breach of disclosure requirements of certain funding programs, potential violation of the STRAC Policy and Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research, and being compelled to engage in unethical behaviour. Before participating in any foreign talent programs, researchers are recommended to conduct open source due diligence to assess potential research security risks. This can be done through their own initiative or through the assistance of the Research Security Unit (researchsecurity@uvic.ca).