Participants can earn 1 CPE credit by attending a Breaking Defense live webinar scheduled for June 24, 2026 at 2pm ET / 11am PT, a sign that research security has moved from a niche compliance topic to one framed as professional continuing education.
Pentagon’s new emphasis on the security of technical research
The webinar frames the situation plainly: the Pentagon has placed new emphasis on the security of technical research, and that shift is pressuring universities, government agencies, and other institutions to bolster protections for basic and applied research against foreign exploitation. The challenge extends beyond classical espionage and intellectual-property theft into areas that touch everyday research administration — grantmaking, international collaboration, and disclosure practices — and into the policies designed to prevent government-funded innovation from flowing to potential adversaries.
DoD’s recent policy and decision-making updates
Breaking Defense’s agenda lists “DoD’s recent policy and decision-making updates” as a central topic, and the webinar promises to examine implementation both at the funder level and among grant recipients. That framing makes clear that the discussion is not only about abstract rules but about how new Department of Defense policy changes are translated into operational steps within funding agencies and the institutions that receive federal research dollars.
Universities, government agencies, and grant recipients under greater pressure
According to the webinar description, universities, government agencies, and other research institutions are “under greater pressure to protect basic and applied research from foreign exploitation.” The program highlights a persistent tension: academic norms of openness and collaboration versus national-security requirements. The agenda explicitly lists how funding agencies and universities are approaching research-security compliance, including distinctions between inadvertent omissions and more serious misconduct — a point the program identifies as important for reputational and enforcement outcomes.
Risk-based due diligence: international footprints, disclosure gaps, and data integration
The webinar emphasizes that organizations are shifting toward more risk-based approaches to due diligence. Specific practices named in the program include reviewing international collaboration footprints, identifying disclosure gaps, and improving the use of additional open source and internal agency or research-organization data. The learning objectives further stress how research-security programs can integrate data from multiple functions and what a measured, risk-based approach looks like in practice.
Mark Franco, partner models including Canada’s, and the focus on military-related IP
The event convenes a panel of experts and singles out Mark Franco, Vice President, Research Security & Intelligence, Digital Science, who “will discuss approaches to identifying and addressing threats to U.S. military-related intellectual property.” The agenda also notes that the webinar will consider partner models, “including Canada’s,” suggesting comparative perspectives on policy and practice. Program topics include how foreign actors can exploit largely unclassified research environments — a point that broadens the conversation beyond classified programs to the open research ecosystem.
What this means for technologists, policymakers, and research administrators
- Technologists and security teams: are encouraged by the program to expand beyond perimeter defenses and to support assessments of “international collaboration footprints,” disclosure practices, and the use of open-source and internal agency data in threat identification.
- Policymakers and funders: face the practical task of implementing DoD policy updates at both the funder and grant-recipient levels, and the webinar explicitly sets implementation as a topic for discussion.
- Universities and research administrators: must navigate the tension between academic openness and national-security requirements, clarify disclosure expectations, and distinguish inadvertent omissions from more serious misconduct while integrating cross-functional data into research-security programs.
The program is offered for one CPE credit in the field of Business Management & Organization; to receive full credit attendees must respond to all three polling questions asked during the live program. For those tracking how federal research security policy will be operationalized across grantmaking, collaboration, and disclosure processes, this session lays out the practical agenda: describe the DoD updates, assess institutional approaches, and demonstrate risk-based practices for due diligence.
