Thank you, and I appreciate this invitation to appear before the committee.
I'm the associate vice-chancellor and chief research security officer for the Texas A&M University System. I'll discuss the unique challenges of protecting cutting-edge technology and maintaining national security in academia's research environment.
The Texas A&M University System is one of the United States' largest higher education systems, with an annual budget of $7.8 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities and eight state agencies, the A&M system employs more than 26,000 faculty and staff members, and educates more than 153,000 students annually. System-wide research and development expenditures exceed $1.1 billion, significantly driving our state's economy.
One of the primary roles of academic institutions is the free and open generation and dissemination of knowledge. The U.S. research enterprise provides the foundation for a diverse and driven workforce and fosters discovery and innovation. International collaboration is critical to scientific advancement and the success of research institutions in the United States.
American universities have become a magnet for students and researchers worldwide to join forces in solving our most pressing problems and promoting scientific advancement. Unfortunately, our technological leadership is under siege by governments of countries such as Russia, China, Iran and others whose rules for information sharing and research integrity differ from ours. These governments are extracting intellectual capital, cutting-edge data and specialized expertise at an unprecedented rate and risking our technological leadership. Academic sector entities must work closely with our federal partners to protect information and research with national security implications.
In 2016 the A&M system's chancellor, John Sharp, recognized this growing threat and established the Research Security Office, or RSO, at the A&M system level. The RSO provides program management and oversight of all A&M system classified research, controlled unclassified programs and export-controlled research.
Understanding our collaborators is one of the most important aspects of any research security program. With whom are we collaborating? Who's funding these collaborators? Is there a foreign government nexus? What are the risks to the institution? Can these risks be mitigated? To answer these questions, the RSO has established a robust due diligence program through which we review all visiting scholars and post-doctoral researchers from countries of concern. In addition, we vet all personnel engaging in our most sensitive research programs.
Our policies require mandatory disclosure of all foreign collaborations and approval of foreign travel. We conduct continuous network monitoring and have included keywords and signatures in our data-loss prevention systems explicitly focused on identifying malign foreign influence in our research enterprise. We've updated system-wide conflict of interest and commitment policies, and established processes for reviewing and approving foreign collaborations and agreements. We established a NIST 800-171-compliant secure computing enclave that is available to all members of the A&M system to protect our sensitive research funded by the federal government.
Underpinning all of this work is a robust relationship with our federal partners, including the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other members of the intelligence community. Collaborations between academia and the federal government are critical to addressing these threats. FBI Director Wray has stated that we can't arrest our way out of this problem. As the single point of contact within the A&M system, the RSO interacts daily with our DCSA and FBI partners. My office also maintains proper clearances, information-sharing and collaboration capabilities, and secure facilities for meaningful engagement with our federal partners.
Soon after the RSO was established, we created the academic security and counter-exploitation working group, an association of university research professionals and their federal counterparts. ASCE exists to leverage the expertise of universities that have demonstrated excellence in research security programs to help address the threat foreign adversaries pose to U.S. academic institutions and conducts international outreach to build a global dialogue and robust community of practice. We're actively engaged with the Canadian U15, in particular.
The first academic security and counter-exploitation training seminar was held in 2017 to provide a forum for universities to benchmark and share best practices from their respective programs. The seminar has grown since that first year to include the broader academic community and increased federal engagement.
While the ASCE training seminar allows academic security—