📝 Summary
Universities are facing governance concerns over safeguarding AI research talent and expertise due to issues such as international collaboration, researcher mobility, and intellectual property. A regional program in Southeast Asia highlighted the need for universities to balance research openness with proportionate safeguards, and to treat research security as a shared institutional responsibility. Effective safeguards may require coordination across various departments and services within universities.
KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 9 – Safeguarding artificial intelligence (AI) research talent and expertise is becoming an increasingly important governance concern for universities, particularly as international collaboration, researcher mobility, access to data, intellectual property and advanced technologies continue to expand.
These issues were examined during the regional programme Safeguarding AI Research Talent and Expertise in Southeast Asia, held from 7 to 9 September 2026 at the InterContinental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
The programme was organised by Health Security Partners (HSP), United States, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction, with the involvement of the Association of Innovative Educational Research (AIER).
The exclusive two-and-a-half-day programme brought together a carefully selected cohort of leaders, administrators, researchers and technical staff working across the AI research and development ecosystem, including functions related to research and development (R&D), human resources, legal affairs and technology transfer.
Participants came from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, representing diverse disciplinary and professional backgrounds including engineering, biology, chemistry, radiation, facility management, environmental sustainability, AI, law and policy studies.
From Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), three members of the Policy Studies Research Group (PSRG), Faculty of Artificial Intelligence (FAI), Dr. Siti Hasliah Salleh, Dr. Intan Sazrina Saimy and Dr. Raja Marzyani Raja Mazlan, were selected to participate in the programme.
The programme covered the global landscape of AI research security, malign foreign talent recruitment programmes, institutional vulnerabilities in recruitment and collaboration, exploitation pathways, disclosure policies, personnel and intellectual property security, stewardship of talent, institutional due diligence and safeguards for AI research collaboration.
A central message from the programme was that research security extends beyond cybersecurity. It concerns people, data, knowledge, intellectual property, research relationships, laboratory environments and institutional processes, with risks potentially emerging throughout the research lifecycle, from recruitment and collaboration to external appointments, research access, knowledge sharing and researcher mobility.
The discussions also highlighted the need to balance research openness and international collaboration with proportionate safeguards. Universities rely on global networks and talent mobility, but also need appropriate mechanisms for disclosure, due diligence and risk assessment.
For universities in Malaysia, the programme raises an important question: is research security being treated as a shared institutional responsibility across the research ecosystem?
Effective safeguards may require coordination across research management, human resources, laboratory and technical services, legal affairs, intellectual property, technology transfer, cybersecurity, facility management and international collaboration.
For PSRG, the programme provides a useful basis for further reflection on the intersection of AI governance, research security, university governance and policy capacity within the Malaysian higher education and research ecosystem.
