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

Ohio State University (OSU) 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 from November 2012 to August 2023. The Department of Justice announced the settlement, which specifically addresses allegations that OSU did not disclose affiliations with Chinese universities and state-run research organizations on annual faculty activity reports submitted to NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The university learned in 2019 about a principal investigator on NASA grants who was a participant in the Thousand Talents Programme, a state-backed recruitment initiative aimed at attracting overseas Chinese academics. OSU did not notify NASA or the NSF about this affiliation until four years later in 2023. The settlement comes amid increased scrutiny from the Trump administration, which has treated collaboration with China as a threat to U.S. national security.

Brief written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.