To tackle espionage, Dutch government plans to screen university students and researchers

The Dutch government plans to introduce a vetting regime for researchers and students “who want to gain access to parts of Dutch knowledge institutions where they would gain access to sensitive technology.”

While the full details of the vetting are not currently established, the Dutch authorities intend to assess individuals’ educational, employment and family histories to identify risky relationships.

The Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that approximately 8,000 individuals will be screened each year according to the Ministry of Education — meaning the team making the assessments will have to check more than 30 individuals every working day.

It is unclear who would conduct these assessments. Both the AIVD and MIVD — the Dutch signals and military intelligence services — indicated they didn’t want the responsibility to fall to them, as NOS reported, and the Ministry of Justice is unsure whether it can perform the function itself.

A consultation on the plan, launched on Monday, comes as countries across the West continue to express alarm about foreign states targeting their research universities, and attempt to develop countermeasures and protections that don’t undermine the significant funding that Chinese students and research partners often provide.

Concerns are especially high regarding China, which has been accused of sponsoring espionage to acquire intellectual property both for domestic commercial exploitation and for its military. Russian and Iranian activities are also of concern.

Last year in the United Kingdom, Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, delivered a warning about research security to the vice-chancellors of the Russell Group — a collective of the country’s 24 leading universities.

McCallum, alongside then Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, suggested the agency could carry out security vetting on key researchers involved in a “small proportion of academic work, with a particular focus on research with potential dual uses in civilian and military life.”

That warning followed an internal security services review of the threats facing the higher education sector. The review concluded that countries such as China were deploying both “overt and covert mechanisms” to “acquire intellectual property and steal advantage.”

A similar program is in place in the United States, where the National Counterintelligence and Security Center’s Safeguarding Science initiative attempts to help the research community “design measures to guard against the potential misuse or theft” of key technologies.

Espionage against the academic sector is often more complex than traditional threats, partially due to the challenges of identifying what research is of national security interest. It is also not yet clear how the Dutch government will define “sensitive technology.”

While last year Germany, China-linked agents were arrested for allegedly exporting a “special laser” that was already covered by European Union export controls, other emerging technologies — from AI algorithms through to innovations in material science — are rarely covered by traditional export restrictions.

Attempts to tackle espionage in universities can also prove controversial due to the open culture of the academic research sector. 

Deputy PM Dowden acknowledged these tensions last year, stating: “For a millennium, our universities have thrived on being open. Open to ideas, open to innovation, open to being independent of government,” before stressing: “This is not about erecting fences, this is about balancing evolving threats and protecting the integrity and security of our great institutions.”

The Dutch consultation is open for responses for the next three months, after which the government will introduce a bill on the law to parliament.