Security Month - International cooperation is important

Open research and international cooperation can be a demanding balancing act.

-An uncertain world emphasizes the importance of developing knowledge across borders. Therefore, it is important that we do not scale down global cooperation, but manage to balance security and accountability in our international relations, says Pro-rector research and development, Tanja Storsul.

The national reports from the security services have for years pointed to the knowledge sector as a target for foreign intelligence and influence (pst.no)

- At OsloMet we need to know how this affects our subject areas and our own core tasks, says Storsul.

Surveys have been conducted that point to conditions that could put our academic values under pressure when we collaborate in research and education with institutions in other countries (nupi.no).

This can, among other things, be about differences in research ethical principles between countries, and researchers who hesitate to participate in academic activities due to restrictions in their home country.

Visiting researchers and security

OsloMet has for a long time been working to establish good routines for security in the recruitment of employees and the reception of visiting researchers.

Visiting researchers do not pass through the same assessment points as in a regular recruitment process and the pitfalls are greater. We therefore need to have good routines that capture whether:

there is a good academic relevance with our research environments
the stay is sufficiently financed to live and stay in Oslo
English language level is high enough to have a good research collaboration
a visa must be applied for which can take a long time
there is a need for a special security assessment before arrival
the invitation is approved and signed by the manager

Researchers coming from countries mentioned in the national threat assessments, or who will work in a so-called sensitive subject area should undergo a security assessment before they can come to OsloMet.

HR has created a risk assessment form for receiving international visiting researchers with questions that will help to evaluate whether it is correct to receive the visiting researcher. This can be helpful in making the right assessments in advance of a visit. You can read more here: Responsible recruitment and reception

International collaboration also takes place to a large extent in an informal researcher-to-researcher collaboration. Then it is particularly important that researchers make good enough assessments, use the risk assessment form, and get approval from the manager who follows up the formal routine with HR.

Decisions on formal international collaborations in research and education are made by the line management.

Responsible internationalisation OsloMet has a resource network that can assist with general advice and guidance.

Responsible internationalisation is about assessing possible risk and taking care of value and security considerations in the internationalization work.

Contact them if you need advice and assistance about international cooperation agreements, international recruitment, reception of visiting researchers and international conferences, information security and privacy, emergency preparedness, ethical assessments in research and security on travel.

Resource network for responsible internationalisation at OsloMet can be contacted by email.

The Directorate for Higher Education and Skills also has good guidelines on their websites (hkdir.no).