The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) has agreed to pay $500,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to disclose current and pending support from foreign sources for faculty members who were principal investigators (PI) or co-PIs of federal research grant proposals.
The settlement relates to research grant support UMD received from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of the Army between 2015 and 2020. These agencies require grant applicants to disclose all current and pending support received by the institution, its PIs, and co-PIs.
Current and pending support is defined as all resources from whatever source — including foreign government sources — made available to researchers in support of and related to their research endeavours.
The agencies rely on the accuracy of these disclosures to avoid funding duplicative research projects and ensure their highly competitive grants are awarded only to PIs who demonstrate they have the time and ability to perform the planned work. Non-disclosure of required information can result in missed opportunities for other applicants to receive funding for their own research.
This investigation began as a proactive initiative spearheaded by the NSF Office of Inspector General (OIG) to determine if foreign gifts and contracts subject to Section 117 of the Department of Education’s Higher Education Act of 1965 were also being disclosed in federal grant proposals, as required.
The United States alleged that UMD knowingly failed to disclose current and pending foreign funding that three UMD researchers had sought and received in five research grant proposals submitted to the NSF and Army. Specifically, the United States alleged UMD failed to disclose to NSF gift funding from Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. to a PI for research in “high energy density FeF3 conversion cathode materials and Li metal anodes.”
Additionally, the United States alleged UMD failed to disclose to the NSF and Army grant funding to two other PIs from Taobao (China) Software Co., Ltd. (Alibaba), titled ‘Large-Scale Behaviour Learning for Dense Crowds” and “Cyber-Manufacturing of Customised Apparel’.
“Complete and accurate disclosures are essential to federal agencies that make decisions on awarding federal grants,” said Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. “Those individuals and universities that knowingly fail to do so skew the grant awarding process in their favour and will be held accountable.”
“NSF plays a major role in the U.S. research enterprise, providing about 25% of all Federal support to America’s colleges and universities for basic research. Lack of institutional oversight of individuals receiving Federal funds poses a serious risk to the success of that enterprise,” said NSF Inspector General Allison Lerner.
