Ohio State University to pay $2.1M over undisclosed China research ties

Ohio State University has agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle civil allegations that it failed to disclose affiliations between certain faculty members and the Chinese government. The settlement addresses failures to report connections to Chinese universities and state-owned research institutions involving federal research funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) between November 2012 and August 2023.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the university was aware of some of these connections as early as 2014 but did not report them to federal agencies. In 2019, the university learned that a principal investigator on a NASA project was participating in China’s ‘Thousand Talents Program,’ a talent recruitment initiative, yet the information was not disclosed to NASA or the NSF until 2023.

Federal officials emphasized that disclosure requirements are essential to protect research security and ensure that taxpayer-funded scientific achievements are not improperly transferred. The Department of Justice stated it will continue to hold institutions accountable for failing to comply with these transparency mandates.