As a knowledge institute, Amsterdam UMC collaborates extensively with international parties from throughout the world to improve global human health. In addition to the many opportunities, international collaborations also come with risks. Knowledge and innovation are increasingly used as tools of power and this calls for vigilance. Knowledge security is aimed at ensuring that international collaboration can be performed safely and securely. Amsterdam UMC acknowledges the potential risks associated with international collaboration and strives for a balanced approach to mitigate these risks under the motto ‘open research where possible, protecting knowledge where necessary'.
To ensure that international collaborations proceed as safely as possible, Amsterdam UMC has developed a Knowledge Security policy framework. This framework provides supervisors and principal investigators with the tools to perform their own risk assessment when establishing an international collaboration.
The HR department has also established a safety check to perform when recruiting and selecting researchers and PhD candidates from outside the EU, including external and scholarship PhD candidates. This check assesses whether the new employee is affiliated with specific countries, universities, and/or military organisations, will be involved with a sensitive area of knowledge or key technology and whether the funding method is legitimate.
For more information, please visit our website (Knowledge security | Amsterdam UMC) or contact kennisveiligheid@amsterdamumc.nl.
Image: Adobe Stock