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Earlier this year, Melissa Perez was named assistant vice president for research security in the Office of Research Integrity and Assurance at ��������. In this role, she oversees university-wide policies and processes to ensure compliance with research security laws and regulations (including export control), international collaborations, travel, and cybersecurity. As George Mason’s designated research security officer, she also leads institutional responses to threats affecting the university’s research compliance and standing. 

Perez has more than 20 years of research compliance experience, including the past decade leading George Mason’s export compliance and secure research programs—most recently as director for export compliance and secure research. She recently shared her insights on the university’s Research Security Program, regulatory challenges, and the impact on researchers. 

What inspired you to take on this new role? 

I majored in international relations at St. Joseph’s University and law at American University. I enjoy analyzing the geopolitical aspects of research security and how the federal government uses regulations to advance its foreign policy goals. I began actively advocating for a research security program at George Mason in 2023 because the U.S. government has been messaging to universities how critical it is to protect U.S. research and the role universities have in safeguarding the research.  

I am committed to supporting our researchers and knew that I wanted to have an even greater role in ensuring that they can pursue their international research safely and responsibly. I have created and expanded other compliance programs at George Mason that support our faculty and researchers, and I am excited for the opportunity to create a new program that will be a resource for the George Mason community. 

Why is a research security program vital for George Mason, and how does it align with the requirements of National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33)?  

Under NSPM-33, the U.S. government mandates that R1 universities like George Mason establish robust research security programs to protect U.S. technology against foreign government misappropriation. The Research Security Program enables us to meet this requirement and continue receiving federal funding, and it also demonstrates to government sponsors George Mason’s commitment to protecting our research and researchers when they engage with international colleagues.   

What are the key security challenges universities face? 

One key challenge is raising awareness of threats and risks, and helping researchers recognize international activities that may compromise their research, their funding, or their careers. When people hear “research security,” they often think that the U.S. government is only interested in protecting classified or sensitive research, but, in fact, the threat of misappropriation goes beyond that and includes fundamental or basic research. 

NSPM-33 introduces specific guidelines for safeguarding research. How you plan to ensure compliance without stifling academic freedom? 

While there is an inherent tension between limiting what faculty can do, from a regulatory perspective, and academic freedom, the goal of George Mason’s Research Security Program is to help researchers identify international activities that are safe, secure, and that protect them, their research teams, and their careers. I don’t want to stop collaborations; I want to make sure that our researchers can engage in these activities with confidence that the collaborations will benefit them, the university, and the scientific community. 

What are your top priorities for the first year of implementation? 

The priorities for the first year are communications and outreach as they are key to raising awareness and establishing buy-in and a culture of compliance. Research security applies to all federally funded research and will impact anyone involved in federally funded research, especially researchers collaborating internationally. That’s why outreach is so important. I want to ensure that faculty, staff, and students understand the new requirements and how the evolving policy landscape impacts them. In terms of workflow changes, by working with offices across campus to refine our processes around foreign travel security and cybersecurity, my intent is to embed elements of research security into existing processes rather than create new workflows for people to follow. My goal is to make research security easy and unobtrusive for the researchers. 

Universities thrive on collaboration. How does the program ensure that partnerships with external entities remain productive and secure?  

A strong research security program will allow us to maintain and grow the level of international engagements at George Mason. Without this program and the processes and tools that will be a part of it, it is much harder from a risk perspective to evaluate which activities may involve a high level of risk that could jeopardize our research or researchers.   

Can you provide an example of a security threat that could potentially compromise research at a university, and how the program will prepare to address it?  

One example is the U.S. government’s policy regarding Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Programs (MFTRP). In the past, being selected to participate in a program such as China’s Thousand Talents Program was considered an achievement. Today, participation in a foreign talent program that the U.S. government considers “malign” could jeopardize a researcher’s ability to receive federal funding.  

To ensure that our researchers remain eligible to bid on federal projects, we have a pre-approval process in RAMP where we review foreign appointments and affiliations to determine whether they would be a MFTRP.  If the researcher is contemplating an activity that would be considered a MFTRP, I work with the researcher to mitigate risk by removing terms that make the activity “malign,” and I provide guidance so that they can weigh the risks associated with such foreign appointments.   

Cybersecurity is one of the pillars of NSPM-33, and my office will partner with many across campus who manage cybersecurity threats, including the Office of Research Computing, ITS, and the IT units in the colleges, to make sure that all research security policies addressing cybersecurity are coordinated and reflect industry best practices. 

How do you envision adapting the program over time? 

In my role as research security officer, it will be my responsibility to be aware of regulatory changes in this space and to have a pulse on how other universities are responding to these changes. As the regulatory landscape evolves, I will work with leadership to communicate those changes to our researchers. Our program will need to be agile to reflect changes implemented by the U.S. government. Policies and guidance are shifting rapidly, and a big challenge will be keeping our community up-to-date.