STINT’s guidelines on responsible internationalisation

Responsible internationalisation is an important aspect of collaborations between higher education institutions and researchers at international level.

STINT’s guidelines on responsible internationalisation, published in 2020 in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Lund University, have been a central point of reference in discussions on responsibility in international collaborations, both at institutional and national levels. The guidelines have also been highlighted as a prominent early international example, including by the EU Commission.

The guidelines emphasised that international collaboration is a fundamental part of academic work. In a rapidly changing international context, risk assessment is decisive in facilitating trusting partnerships. The guidelines considered institutional differences between countries while taking a country-agnostic perspective.

The focus was on the individual responsibility of higher education institutions and their staff. The aim of the document was not to give directives but rather to provide support for reflection and form the basis for discussion of strategic internationalisation decisions. The aim was further to increase the awareness of the higher education sector and assist researchers, teachers, research leaders, heads of departments and administrators in assessing collaborations and structuring discussions on how their institution, department or research group should approach international collaborations.

The guidelines covered not only security issues, but also ethics, academic freedom and intellectual property rights, without claiming to be comprehensive in terms of the risks institutions should be aware of.

STINT’s development of the concept of responsible internationalisation

In its role as a funder of international collaborations, STINT has built an extensive bank of project applications for funding of partnerships between researchers in Sweden and other countries. When these applications were assessed in 2018, some projects showed insufficient contextual knowledge and risk assessment. Around 5% of the applications failed to take into account ethics, risks related to dual use, or serious human rights contraventions. This was common or serious enough for STINT to take the initiative in providing guidelines on responsible internationalisation.

In 2019 STINT took the initiative to write guidelines to support higher education institutions in what would later be termed responsible internationalisation. The collaboration included Karolinska Institutet, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Lund University. The resulting guidelines emphasised the importance of taking a broader spectrum of considerations into account in international initiatives. The report was released in February 2020, at the same time when discussions with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the USA commenced, which further broadened the perspective on responsible internationalisation.

The concept responsible internationalisation quickly became established at Swedish higher education institutions and became a catalyst for new initiatives, such as CASI and the geopolitical group of the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions (SUHF).

In its 2022 publication Tackling R&I Foreign Interference, the EU Commission described STINT’s guidelines as a valuable policy document, together with similar publications from Universities UK (UUK) and the German Rector’s Conference (HRK). At the same time, STINT organised workshops with the NSF, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), and UUK, thus driving international discussions.

During the 2023 Swedish presidency of the European Council, a policy debate between research ministers in the EU Council was held on the topic of knowledge security and responsible internationalisation. The concept responsible internationalisation was also included in national guidelines in countries such as Switzerland, Norway, and Finland. Organisations like the Global Research Council co-organised special events with STINT and established working groups on the topic, with the aim of drawing up a global code of conduct for responsible internationalisation. When the New York Times in May 2023 reported that “Sweden has developed frameworks”, it referred to STINT’s guidelines on responsible internationalisation.

In Sweden, the government drew attention to the concept responsible internationalisation and tasked the Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR), the Swedish Research Council, and Sweden’s innovation agency Vinnova with developing a proposal for national guidelines. An interim report was presented in April 2024.

In 2024, the research ministers of the European Council adopted principles for research security in which attention is paid to the concept responsible internationalisation.

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