Upfront due diligence can help British universities combat national security threats

On April 25, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden hosted Vice Chancellors from 24 leading universities for a briefing by the Director General of MI5 and the Chief Executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The briefing addressed foreign states targeting British universities and the national security risks facing academia. Subsequently, the Government announced a new consultation on measures to protect UK universities from these threats.

Security presents a dynamic and evolving challenge, with risks to universities changing faster than regulations can address. Conducting upfront due diligence on partners and funders can prevent partnerships with malicious actors before discussions even start. But how can this be achieved without draining universities’ resources? 

Given the increasing volume and complexity of partnerships, the impracticality of manual searches, and the high stakes of non-compliance, using AI for due diligence becomes the logical choice. Traditional research tools and manual web searches simply cannot scale with this demand. Universities need access to technology that enables them to conduct due diligence through a broader risk lens on every partner, funder, and third party at speed.  

AI tools like Xapien can perform research across the entire indexed internet and compliance databases, analyse nuanced information, and generate detailed reports in minutes. Universities that don’t perform comprehensive due diligence on research partners risk getting entangled with the wrong third party. But due diligence doesn’t have to be a burden —  Xapien does the heavy lifting for you.

Speak with our experts in higher education to learn more.