Baltimore City Wire

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 (PIs) or co-PIs of federal research grant proposals.

The settlement pertains 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 includes all resources from any source — including foreign government sources — that are made available to researchers in support of their research endeavors. The accuracy of these disclosures is crucial for avoiding funding duplicative research projects and ensuring grants are awarded only to PIs capable of performing the planned work. Non-disclosure can result in missed opportunities for other applicants.

This investigation began as a proactive initiative led 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 being disclosed in federal grant proposals as required.

The United States alleged 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, it was alleged that UMD did not disclose gift funding from Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. for a PI's research on “high energy density FeF3 conversion cathode materials and Li metal anodes.” Additionally, it was alleged that UMD failed to disclose grant funding from Taobao (China) Software Co., Ltd. (Alibaba), titled “Large-Scale Behavior Learning for Dense Crowds” and “Cyber-Manufacturing of Customized Apparel,” received by two other PIs.

“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 favor 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," said NSF Inspector General Allison Lerner. "Lack of institutional oversight poses a serious risk to this enterprise's success." She added that this investigation was part of NSF OIG’s efforts focused on compliance with critical grant terms, including mandatory disclosures: "Failure of institutional oversight can foster noncompliance."

The claims resolved by this settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.

This resolution resulted from coordinated efforts between the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, with assistance from NSF OIG and the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas F. Corcoran investigated this matter for the District of Maryland.