Research security
The University of Victoria benefits greatly from research partnerships of all types. These partnerships allow our faculty members and researchers to advance their research and help solve worldwide issues through collaboration and innovation. Some research partnerships may have risks associated with them, and it is important for faculty members and researchers to understand and mitigate these potential risks. UVic is country-agnostic and will uphold principles of research security to ensure and maintain academic freedom and access to global talent.
Research Security Unit (RSU)
We have established a Research Security Unit (RSU) at UVic that serves to protect our intellectual property and infrastructure, promote awareness of and provide education in research security, and help foster domestic and international partnerships. The RSU can help with:
- Review of all security applications associated with Tri-Council funding
- Review of Sponsored Research Agreements involving foreign partners
- Host workshops and provide training on research security
- Provide assistance in partnership assessments for faculty
- Provide research security travel tips
Latest news
On February 14, 2023, the Federal Government issued a statement which indicated that CFI, SSHRC, NSERC and CIHR will be implementing new measures to ensure that grant applications proposing to conduct research in sensitive areas will not be funded if any of the researchers working on the project are affiliated with a university, research institute or laboratory connected to military, national defence or state security entities of foreign state actors that pose a risk to our national security.
This site will be updated regularly with new information and resources for UVic's research community.
Events/webinars
What: 2023 Research Security Conference: Mitigating Risk in a Changing World
When: October 26-27, 2023
Where: MacEwan Hall, University of Calgary Main Campus
Hosts: University of Calgary & University of Alberta
What: Overview of the Research Security Centre
When: June 27th at 10:00AM PST
Where: Engineering & Computer Science (ECS) Room 660
Speaker: Public Safety Canada
RSVP by June 23rd to researchsecurity@uvic.ca
What: National Security Threats & Digital Technologies
When: June 13th at 10:30AM PST
Speaker: Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
Know your partner
It is important to build research partnerships with known and trusted partner organizations in order to help mitigate risks. The published Open Source Due Diligence Guide and the Risk Assessment Form are great tools for conducting due diligence on potential research partners. For example, one may search for corporate records to check for foreign ownership, or search for IP ownership and transfers. Some sources that can be valuable include free databases, subscription databases, corporate websites, news releases, court records, SEC filings, and social media posts.
Some helpful databases include:
- UVic Library's Nexis Uni Database
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR Database
- Canada's Business Registries
- U.S. Database of Foreign Principals of Entities
- UVic Library's EBSCOhost Database
- SanctionsExplorer
- Canada Sanctions List
- U.S. Sanctions List
- UK Sanctions List
- Canadian Legal Information Institute Database
- Canadian Patents Database
- U.S. Patent Public Search
- Google Patents
- Scopus
- Other open source intelligence tools
FAQ
Resources/forms
- Conducting Open Source Due Diligence
- Risk Assessment Form
- Research Security Training Courses
- Safeguarding Your Research
- National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships
- International Research Security Resources
- Travel Security Guide for University Researchers and Staff
- International Travel and Data Security
- UVic Quick Reference Travel Guide
- UVic Tips for Securing Research Data