Collaboration Reporting Requirements
Collaboration Reporting Requirements
Collaboration Reporting Requirements
It is common to travel outside the US for conferences or in support of collaborative efforts. Some U.S. federal agencies have instituted travel reporting requirements associated with federal awards. Typically, these require all international travel, both personal and business, by all individuals involved with the research efforts under an award prior to such travel. There may be additional reporting requirements for travel to countries of concern. For additional travel guidance see: International Travel Guidance and Export Travel Guidance
Biosketch
It is also common to have an affiliation with a collaborator institution/entity, such as a visiting professorship, member of a scientific advisory board or honorary appointment. These affiliations should be reported to sponsors in your Biosketch and to Caltech through your DFIC. If an affiliation is with a foreign institution/entity, care should be taken to ensure it is not with an entity on the restricted parties list or that the relationship could be considered a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program.
Current/Pending/Other Support
U.S. Federal Agency Sponsors require that contributions to research (whether or not US federally funded) be reported as other support. This includes contributions of visitors or foreign collaborators. Please See: Transparency in Research: Federal Agency Disclosure Requirements - Caltech Office of Research Policy
Foreign Component
When conducting research using PHS/NIH funds, researchers should note that PHS/NIH considers collaborations with investigators at a foreign site anticipated to result in co-authorship as a possible foreign component and, as such, requires prior approval. Please see: NIH Notice NOT-OD-26-084 Reminder – Definition of Foreign Components
Risk Mitigation
As part of U.S. Federal Agency foreign engagement risk review for new awards (and sometimes, renewals), all publications for the last 4-10 years (depending on agency) and all patents are reviewed for foreign authors or authors with foreign affiliations and foreign funding sources. Should any of these be with a person or an entity/institution on a restricted parties list, the sponsor will likely require certification that you will not continue collaboration with such person or entity/institution.
Authorship
As a general rule, researchers should take care not to include authors (foreign or domestic) who have not contributed substantially to the paper and should not include anyone gratuitously as an author or in the acknowledgements if they have not contributed. Likewise, authors should not cite gratuitously to federal funding if none was used in support of the reported research. Several sponsors have issued new terms and conditions (including on renewals of existing awards) restricting collaborators in foreign countries from conducting or collaborating on research or collaboratively writing a publication stemming from the federally funded research. For further guidance, see agency specific requirements, above.