The Flemish universities will better protect their knowledge against foreign interference by countries such as China or Russia. In a joint vision text, which ‘De Tijd’ reports on, the universities set out how they are going to approach this.
The universities approved the vision text within the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR). Universities realize that “as engines of social, technological and economic progress they are targets of unwanted interference by foreign state actors”. They refer, among other things, to attempts to illegally acquire knowledge and technology here.
“In recent years, knowledge security has been much higher on the political agenda, partly due to the deteriorating political relations between Europe and China,” say the universities. “But Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine also highlights the problem. China and Russia are indeed a cause for concern, but it would be naive to think that the risks relate only to cooperation with those countries.”
In their vision text, the Flemish universities take thirteen commitments to protect knowledge security. Every year the universities evaluate how well they comply with these and which incidents there were. For example, the universities are committed to exchanging experiences about the way in which they can screen incoming students and researchers on the basis of publicly available information, in addition to the information they receive from State Security.
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