SB 1 requires the university to develop processes and/or guidance for limiting gifts and donations from China and for evaluating and reporting academic partnerships with Chinese institutions. In alignment with federal guidance, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) includes Hong Kong and Macau, but excludes Taiwan.
Minor updates will be made to the university’s Gift Acceptance Policy to reflect SB 1’s prohibition on gifts, donations, and contributions from the PRC. Additionally, faculty will no longer be allowed to accept federal funding from the PRC, including research grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Under SB 1, there is an exemption for philanthropic and unrestricted grants as well as tuition from Chinese citizens from the prohibition. Screening processes are already in place to determine if a donation or gift is from the PRC government.
Academic partnerships have been defined internally as a formal agreement between Ohio State and an academic or research institution located in China. Of the types of agreements listed by Office of International Affairs (OIA), the workgroup determined that any new or renewed Memorandum of Agreement, Memorandum of Understanding, International Cooperative Graduate Degree Agreement, Service Agreement, Affiliation Agreement, and Student Exchange Agreement must be reported to the Chancellor of ODHE if the partnering academic or research institution is located in China. OIA will be responsible for reporting any new or renewed partnerships to the Chancellor.
Additionally, the ERIK Innovation and Commercialization Office has formal agreements that meet this definition, which include License Agreements, Inter-institutional Agreements, Confidential Disclosure Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements, and Data Use Agreements with academic and research institutions in China.
The university is also ensuring the effectiveness of current safeguards in place to ensure compliance with SB 1 requirements related to conflicts of interest/commitment, export controls, visiting scholar agreements and foreign visitor processes.