On October 28, 2022, the UC Office of Research hosted the first Regional Research Security Conference in the new Digital Futures building. The conference was a one-day event and included the following keynote speakers:

• Rebecca Keiser, PhD, Chief of Research Security Strategy and Policy (National Science Foundation)
• Carl Taylor, Director of the Office of Global Operations and Security (University of Kansas)
• Kevin Gamache, PhD, Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Research Security Officer (Texas A&M University System)

The catalyst for the conference was the National Security Presidential Memorandum – 33 (NSPM-33), which, once fully implemented, will require academic institutions that receive federal funding to strengthen protections against foreign government interference and exploitation by strengthening and standardizing a number of research security practices, including disclosure, research security training, cybersecurity training, and foreign travel. The conference’s goal was to promote and facilitate research security and integrity; one of the major themes from the day was the desire to develop a more robust research security community to share information and resources. Thus, the Regional Research Security Forum was created, which would share best practices, challenges, and new information with other forum members so to assist each other with compliance with NSPM-33.

The Forum includes research security professionals from central Midwest universities and academic medical research institutions and continues to meet monthly with rotating presenters and institutions each month. So far, the institutions that have been represented include: University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Central State University, Miami University, Northwestern University, Ohio University, OSU, Purdue University, University of Dayton, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, University of Toledo, Wright State University.

The University of Cincinnati Office of Research looks forward to continuing these important conversations by bringing in national thought-leaders to foster understanding and to facilitate discussion of how to protect and promote the US research enterprise.