US university to pay US$2.1 million settlement over claims it didn’t disclose China ties

A prominent American university has agreed to pay a US$2.1 million settlement to resolve allegations that it failed to disclose employees’ ties to China when applying for federal grant funding, the Department of Justice announced on Monday.Ohio State University’s (OSU) settlement relates to Nasa and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants that provided funding to the university from November 2012 to August 2023.Both Nasa and the NSF required the public university to disclose “foreign government support received by any principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on the grant application”, according to a Department of Justice press release.The NSF was established by Congress in 1950 and funds scientific research through grants, while Nasa oversees the US space programme, conducting research in areas including aeronautics and space exploration.The US$2.1 million settlement will specifically resolve allegations that, since 2014, annual faculty activity reports submitted to OSU identified affiliations with Chinese universities and state-run research organisations, but the university did not disclose this information to Nasa or the NSF.The Justice Department said claims resolved by the settlement were “allegations only”. Photo: ShutterstockIn addition, the university learned in 2019 that a principal investigator on Nasa grants was a participant in the Thousand Talents Programme, which the department said was established by the Chinese government “to recruit individuals with knowledge or access to foreign technology intellectual property”.