The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party made public more than 700 pages of previously nonpublic federal investigative records on Oct. 13, detailing American university researchers’ undisclosed affiliations, financial arrangements, and research ties with Chinese institutions.
National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Inspector General records accompanied a new congressional report calling for stronger safeguards against the misuse of U.S. taxpayer-funded research. The investigations uncovered cases involving Chinese state-backed talent recruitment programs, undisclosed foreign compensation, and failures to report outside research support.
Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) urged Congress to pass the Securing Innovation and Research from Adversaries (SIRA) Act, which would restrict federally funded research collaborations involving entities on specified U.S. government lists.
“Congress must pass the SIRA Act to establish clear, consistent safeguards across the federal government and ensure American taxpayer dollars are not used to support research collaborations with entities our own government has identified as national security risks,” Moolenaar said in an Oct. 13 statement.
Former University Provost’s Chinese Appointments
Among the records is a 2020 NSF investigation involving Enrique Lavernia, a Cuba-born materials scientist who served as executive vice chancellor and provost of the University of California—Irvine until March of that year.
Investigators documented his undisclosed affiliations with Wuhan University of Technology and other Chinese institutions, including participation in Beijing’s Thousand Talents recruitment program.
Wuhan University of Technology publicly identified Lavernia as a strategic scientist and reported that he received the Chinese Government Friendship Award in September 2017.
A Chinese Academy of Engineering document obtained by investigators credited Lavernia’s work with helping China develop advanced materials and manufacturing technologies for defense weapons and equipment.
The records also contain an unsigned Chinese employment contract offering $50,000 per month, research-team funding, laboratory support, and other benefits. The document does not establish that every proposed payment was received.
Investigators found that Lavernia repeatedly omitted Chinese affiliations and compensation from federal research disclosures and a Department of Energy Top Secret security-clearance reinvestigation.
The NSF investigation identified approximately $5.2 million in federal research awards associated with him since fiscal year 2012.
NSF imposed a government-wide suspension in July 2020, temporarily barring him from receiving federal grants and contracts.
Lavernia joined Texas A&M University in 2023. In March 2026, the university named him a university distinguished professor, its highest faculty distinction. University materials identify NSF and Energy Department support for his research.
The released records do not establish when or how his 2020 federal suspension was resolved.
Stanford Research Awards Under Scrutiny
An October 2022 NSF investigation identified at least 26 Stanford University research awards involving researchers who participated in foreign-funded projects that had not been disclosed to the agency.
Those awards had more than $12.8 million in associated claimed costs, according to the investigative records.
Investigators recommended suspending 14 awards because of disclosure deficiencies. The documents do not establish that NSF ultimately suspended all 14 awards or that the entire $12.8 million was improperly spent.
NSF investigators interviewed Michiko Pane, Stanford’s senior director of pre-award operations, who said her office did not independently verify information researchers provided in grant proposals. She said responsibility for accurate funding disclosures rested with the researchers.
The investigation also identified Stanford professor Richard Zare as holding a Chinese Thousand Talents Program appointment requiring three months of work annually at a foreign university.
According to the NSF memorandum, Stanford had known about Zare’s appointment since May 2019 but had not formally notified NSF. Investigators recommended suspending his research award, which had received approximately $464,000.
In separate July 2026 comments on federal grant policies, Stanford acknowledged national security concerns involving foreign research collaborations while defending international scientific collaboration.
The Epoch Times requested comment from Stanford, Zare, Lavernia, Texas A&M, the University of California–Irvine, and NSF about the investigations and subsequent enforcement outcomes. None had provided a substantive response by publication time.
Congress Seeks Stronger Research Safeguards
The committee’s report calls for stronger monitoring of federal research grants, government-wide security standards, and greater use of suspensions and debarments when supported by investigative findings.
The proposed SIRA Act would restrict federally funded collaborations with entities on specified U.S. government lists, including the War Department’s Section 1260H list and Section 1286 list—for entities identified as Chinese military companies operating in the United States and for individuals, companies, and institutions that have been flagged as a concern to national security, respectively. The act would cover joint research, shared laboratories, data transfers, and other forms of collaboration, while allowing limited waivers.
In an Oct. 9 email statement to The Epoch Times responding to a related research-security inquiry, NSF spokesman Mike England said the agency already requires disclosure of foreign affiliations and research support, prohibits participation in malign foreign talent recruitment programs, and requires research-security training.
NSF also uses its Trusted Research Using Safeguards and Transparency framework to assess risks before awarding grants, England said. The agency is developing a policy that would prohibit institutions from using NSF funds to collaborate with entities on a restricted-entities list and bar senior or key personnel on NSF awards from holding concurrent appointments with those entities.
“These safeguards target bad-faith conduct—undisclosed foreign funding, IP and data theft, or talent-program participation—not international collaboration itself, which NSF views as an essential element of scientific progress,” England said.
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