HCDE impact: Leading the nationwide effort to protect US research security

The future of research depends on advancing groundbreaking discoveries while protecting those discoveries from evolving threats. The Safeguarding the Entire Community of the US Research Ecosystem (SECURE) Center, led by Human Centered Design & Engineering Professor Mark Haselkorn, brings together the national research community to co-create tools and strategies that address self-identified security challenges.

As defined by National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33), research security involves “safeguarding the research enterprise against the misappropriation of research and development to the detriment of national or economic security, related violations of research integrity and foreign government interference.”

Backed by a major National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2024, the SECURE Center is working to protect the integrity of US research while preserving the openness and collaboration that drive scientific progress.

The big picture: why research security matters

Research security is essential to scientific development while ensuring that the benefits, like technological advancements, economic growth, and national security, remain with the countries that invest in it. 

“The US invests billions of dollars annually in research, and the value is far beyond the investment itself—the value can be world-changing,” said Haselkorn. “Through research, we develop new forms of energy, new ways for people to communicate, new cures for diseases—all the things you can think of that research can do. When US research gets into the hands of another country that didn’t invest in it, then we lose our investment and potentially have a national security threat. This is especially important for things like dual-use technologies, where one country is creating a new form of energy to enhance people’s lives, while another is using it as a weapon, for example.”

Protecting research involves creating an environment where scientists can collaborate openly and advance knowledge without the risk of losing valuable intellectual property or compromising national interests. 

Community impact: a collaborative approach to research security

Under the CHIPS & Science Act of 2022, all US research institutions are required to establish a research security program. These programs vary based on the size of the institution, the type of research conducted, and the specific security risks involved.

“That’s where we come in,” said Haselkorn. “We’re building a collaborative effort across the country, listening to the research community, and incorporating their diverse needs into a shared solution.”

The SECURE team is working toward the development of a shared virtual environment that will serve as a national hub for research security. This platform will allow researchers to collaborate, share information, and access resources to strengthen security without compromising scientific openness. 

SECURE is coordinating with regional centers at five universities across the country, including the University of Washington (West), Northeastern University (Northeast), Emory University (Southeast), University of Missouri (Midwest), and both the University of Texas San Antonio and Texas A&M University (Southwest), to understand their unique needs and security challenges. In addition to the five regional centers, SECURE is collaborating with nine additional higher education institutions and three private sector organizations.

This approach considers the needs and perspectives of organizations in different geographic, administrative, and socioeconomic contexts while leveraging the capabilities of each institution. Additionally, this structure elevates regional concerns to a national level where organizations may discover that their challenges are similar in unexpected ways to those in other parts of the country, paving the way for solutions that might not otherwise be conceived by organizations working in isolation.

“The fact that the government awarded this funding to the NSF is a huge opportunity for the scientific community to self-govern,” said David Ribes, a professor in Human Centered Design & Engineering and research community liaison for SECURE. “It allows the community to define its own values—about openness in science and the role of science in society—while building the security it needs.”

Economic importance: why protecting US research is an economic opportunity

American innovation drives industries from biotechnology to nuclear technology, and protecting research is critical to maintaining a competitive edge. 

“Right now, the US is the leader in AI technology, and it’s a huge economic advantage for American industry, but China is in a tight race with us,” said Ribes. “Quantum computing is another example of this race—whoever controls quantum may have the power to break encryption and fundamentally change computing.” 

The economic value of research relies on an open environment where innovation can thrive. “Publicly funded research must be shared,” Ribes explained. “Much of the data that researchers produce that was supported by public institutions like the NIH must be made available so others can use it. Instead of spending millions of dollars to regenerate the same data, open science allows researchers to build on each other’s work, accelerating innovation.” 

Working toward a secure future

Balancing security with the openness that defines scientific progress is central to the SECURE Center mission. Increased security measures, if applied too rigidly, risk disrupting this culture of openness. At the same time, ignoring the threat to research leaves the door open for attacks and data theft. If the research community isn’t working to address this challenge, the government may shift responsibility for research security to other agencies, potentially with little understanding of research culture and values.

By August, the end of the first year of SECURE, the Center will introduce its first product to the research community for feedback. Eventually, Haselkorn and Ribes envision SECURE as the central institution that coordinates research security across the country.

Haselkorn underscores the urgency of this work: “Without the SECURE Center, I think there’s a real chance that the entire research ecosystem could be significantly impaired for a long time. This notion that we somehow can’t work securely would undercut what has been an incredibly successful research enterprise that has made the US number one in science and technology research in the world.”

To learn more about the SECURE Center and HCDE’s leadership in safeguarding the US research ecosystem, visit securecenter.uw.edu.