KIWi advises German universities and academics on all issues relating to international academic cooperation. A particular focus is on the thematic area “Risks and Security”, which is becoming increasingly important given changing geopolitical conditions. 

Science in geopolitically challenging times

Today more than ever, those involved in scientific cooperation must consider issues of risk and security management when collaborating with international partners. Sanction regulations, restricted mobility options - for example in crisis and war regions - or attacks on academic freedom pose concrete challenges. At the same time, security-related aspects such as unwanted knowledge drain, the use of civilian research for military purposes (dual-use/multiple-use) and risks to research security and integrity are increasingly coming into focus - especially in collaborations with partners who do not share a common set of values.

In this area of tension, KIWi advocates an interest-oriented, risk-reflective and competence-based approach: Our aim is to enable scientific cooperation - while being aware of the associated risks.

 

Dr Kai Sicks, Secretary General of the German Academic Exchange Service

Advising, networking, competence building 

In the field of risk and security, KIWi supports science and co-operation actors in the German science system through:

• Personalised advice
• Dialogue and networking events 
• Peer-to-peer exchange (KIWi Connect)
• Impulse papers and contributions to debates on foreign science policy issues
• Handouts and practice-oriented publications (KIWi Compass)
• iDA-KIWi in-house seminars

Our advisory services address key issues relating to science-specific security topics in international academic cooperation, including due diligence processes, dual-use process management and other aspects of knowledge security. Since 2022, we have been bundling these topics in our KIWi Connect series "Dual-Use in International Academic Collaborations". The aim is to enable stakeholders involved in internationalisation at universities to make informed decisions and take appropriate action.

We have observed that universities have a high level of problem awareness. Current challenges lie in the practical implementation of security-related processes and in the dynamic external framework conditions.

This is exactly where our work comes in: We advise internationalisation stakeholders at all levels of German universities on their projects. Academics can contact us with their cooperation ideas, find out about region-specific features with us and obtain suggestions for initiating and implementing cooperation projects.

We also advise the level of university management: Employees from the university administration, especially in the International Office, but also in other administrative units responsible for research management, legal affairs, occupational health and safety, internal compliance and export control, or for security issues in international mobility.

We support universities in the institutionalisation of measures for opportunity and risk assessment as well as the implementation of an integrated security management system that takes particular account of science-specific risk factors. We offer concrete support in the operational design of these systems. 

Since 2023, we have also been piloting in-house seminars in cooperation with the International DAAD Academy (iDA) on topics such as "Risks and Security" using various country examples.

Country-sensitive and practical: our unique selling point 

A special feature of our work is the interlinking of thematic knowledge on risk and security with the DAAD's global regional expertise. Thanks to the DAAD's worldwide external network and the intensive exchange on issues of knowledge security with international partners - for example in the USA, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands or at the EU level - we can analyse developments worldwide and derive country-specific risk dossiers and best practices from them. These flow directly into our consultations and enable a country-sensitive, pragmatic approach. 

Systematically using empirical knowledge 

The wide range of experience already available at German universities in dealing with security-related issues will be brought together in KIWi and systematically developed through joint peer-to-peer and networking formats with practitioners. This creates a growing pool of tried and tested strategies that are available to the entire system. 

The KIWi Compass "No red lines" 

In 2021, KIWi published the KIWi Compass "No red lines" - a guide which can be used flexibly to assess opportunities and risks in academic cooperation under complex conditions. The practical guide is based on a set of criteria that can be used regardless of country, sector, discipline or cooperation phase. In addition to academic-specific aspects, it also addresses other security dimensions, for example in the context of international mobility or institutional governance. 

Since 2024, the KIWi Compass is available online in a condensed, regularly updated form - in German and English.

KIWi Compass "No red lines" (digital edition)
KIWi Compass "No red lines" (in German)

 

KIWi Checklist Knowledge Security

The KIWi Checklist Knowledge Security is a tool for reviewing and assessing security-related dimensions of international academic cooperation. It can be used as a self-assessment tool by individual scientists and researchers responsible for cooperation, and as a dialogue tool to support internal university review and coordination processes.

KIWi Checklist Knowledge Security

The three pillars in the KIWi area of “Risks and Security”

Pillar 1: Decision-making

In this pillar, KIWi supports internationalisation stakeholders at all levels of German universities in initiating and implementing academic cooperation, taking into account country-sensitive risk and security aspects. The interactive KIWi Compass "No Red Lines" provides an important basis for decision-making as an orientation framework for German universities.

Pillar 2: Analysing mechanisms and processes at universities

The second pillar contributes to raising awareness of different perspectives on risk and security systems within universities. KIWi acts as a guide for institutional change during this process and can provide expertise through individual advice, e.g. to support universities in setting up structures for integrated risk and security management. 

Pillar 3: Application to countries, regions and disciplines

The third pillar focuses on the concrete application of the topics developed in pillars 1 and 2 to countries, regions and disciplines. These include 

• Expertise in risk and security assessment of a national academic system 
• Intercultural knowledge to recognise risks and strategies when dealing with uncertainty 
• Discipline-specific application