TL;DR: On 27 February 2026 the European Commission published a three-part package on international research cooperation: the first Research Security Monitor 2025, a proposed Council Recommendation on an EU framework for science diplomacy, and the second Global Approach Implementation Report (2023-2025). The Monitor is a baseline, non-binding assessment of how research-security policy is developing across EU Member States; the science-diplomacy proposal is the EU’s first attempt at a shared framework and “code of conduct” for how the Union and its Member States engage internationally on research. The Council formally adopted the science-diplomacy recommendation on 29 May 2026. Neither document creates new legal obligations for individual researchers or institutions on its own — they set direction for national policy and EU-level coordination.
What the Commission published on 27 February 2026
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) released three linked documents on the same day, framed as a coordinated push to strengthen the EU’s international research engagement while managing the security risks that come with open scientific collaboration:
- Research Security Monitor 2025 — a qualitative baseline assessment of research-security policy development across EU Member States, intended to support peer learning and the exchange of good practice among governments, funders, and research organisations.
- Proposal for a Council Recommendation on an EU framework for science diplomacy — the Commission’s proposed text for the Council to adopt, setting out a shared vision and common principles for how the EU and Member States conduct science diplomacy.
- Global Approach Implementation Report 2023-2025 — the second biennial progress report on the EU’s 2021 “Global Approach to Research and Innovation” strategy, covering fair and reciprocal international cooperation, global partnerships, and priority areas such as the green and digital transitions and health.
The Commission describes the package as building on a February 2025 expert report drawing on roughly 130 science and diplomacy specialists, and on the Council’s earlier research security recommendation adopted in 2024 as part of the EU’s wider Economic Security Strategy.
Research Security Monitor 2025: what it found
The Monitor is not an audit or a compliance instrument — it is a comparative snapshot. Its headline findings, per the Commission’s own summary, are that awareness of research-security risk in international cooperation is growing across the EU, but that policy maturity varies significantly between Member States: some have established formal research-security guidance, dedicated advisory bodies, or risk-assessment processes for international partnerships, while others are earlier in that process.
That unevenness is exactly the gap the Monitor is designed to surface. Rather than mandating a single EU-wide approach, it functions as a peer-learning tool — giving Member States, funding agencies, and universities a common reference point to compare practices and identify where national frameworks are furthest along. This mirrors, at EU scale, the same national-guideline pattern CASRAI has already covered for the Netherlands’ national knowledge-security guideline and Switzerland’s research-integrity competence centre — both examples of the kind of national-level maturity the Monitor is tracking across all 27 Member States at once.
The proposed Council Recommendation on science diplomacy
The second element is the more novel one: the Commission’s proposal is the EU’s first attempt at a formal, Union-wide science diplomacy framework. Per the Commission’s own description, its stated purpose is to give the EU and Member States “a shared vision, common narrative and pragmatic code of conduct” for engaging internationally on research — explicitly in support of safeguarding the EU’s democratic values, strategic interests, and technological and data sovereignty, while strengthening the EU’s position as a global science and technology actor through cooperation that remains both open and secure.
In practice, this is a coordination instrument aimed at national governments and EU institutions, not a rule that reaches individual researchers or research offices directly. Its closer analogue on this site is the funding-and-governance layer covered in CASRAI’s overview of Horizon Europe and EU research funding, rather than the binding, transaction-level obligations described in CASRAI’s guide to the EU Dual-Use Export Control Regulation (2021/821). The Council Recommendation sets direction and shared principles; the Dual-Use Regulation sets enforceable licensing requirements for specific goods, software, and technology transfers, including many with research applications.
From proposal to adoption: the Council’s 29 May 2026 recommendation
A Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation is not itself EU law or a final policy position — it requires Council adoption. Per the Council of the EU’s own press release, the Council formally adopted its recommendation defining the new science diplomacy framework on 29 May 2026, roughly three months after the Commission’s proposal. As with other Council Recommendations, the adopted text is not legally binding on Member States in the way a Regulation is, but it represents a formal, consensus EU-level policy commitment that Member States and the Commission are expected to act on, including through follow-up reporting and coordination mechanisms.
Research administrators should treat the adopted recommendation as a signal of direction rather than a new compliance obligation: it does not itself create reporting, licensing, or certification requirements comparable to, for example, the training and disclosure obligations research offices track under NSPM-33 in the United States, or the National Security Guidelines for Research Partnerships (NSGRP) in Canada. Concrete, institution-facing requirements — if any follow — would arrive later, through Member State implementation or future Horizon Europe programme guidance, not through the recommendation text itself.
How this fits with CASRAI’s other EU research-security coverage
This package sits alongside, but is distinct from, several pieces of EU-adjacent content already on this site:
- The EU Dual-Use Export Control Regulation 2021/821 guide covers a binding, enforceable EU Regulation governing licensing for dual-use goods and technology transfers — a legal obligation with direct compliance consequences. The Research Security Monitor and science-diplomacy recommendation are policy-coordination instruments, not regulations.
- The Netherlands’ national knowledge-security guideline is exactly the kind of national-level policy the Monitor is designed to benchmark and compare across all Member States — the Monitor is the EU-wide meta-view, not a replacement for national guidance.
- CASRAI’s Horizon Europe and EU research funding overview covers the programme-level funding rules that the science-diplomacy framework and research-security work sit alongside, but does not itself address.
None of these existing pages covered the specific 27 February 2026 package or the subsequent 29 May 2026 Council adoption before this article.
What this means for research administrators
For most institutional research offices outside the EU policy apparatus itself, the direct, immediate action items from this package are limited — neither document imposes new certification, disclosure, or licensing requirements comparable to the binding instruments research offices already track. That said, three things are worth watching:
- Member State divergence may narrow, unevenly. Because the Monitor documents wide variation in national research-security maturity, expect individual Member States with less-developed frameworks to introduce or revise national guidance over the following one to two years, using more mature Member States (and the Monitor itself) as reference points.
- Future Horizon Europe guidance may reference the science-diplomacy framework. Council Recommendations in this policy area have previously fed into programme-level expectations; institutions active in Horizon Europe international-cooperation actions should watch for references to the framework in future work programme text or National Contact Point guidance.
- The Monitor is a useful benchmarking reference, not a checklist. Research-security officers at EU institutions, or non-EU institutions partnering with EU counterparts, can use the Monitor’s cross-country comparison to gauge how mature a given partner country’s national research-security policy environment is — useful context for partnership due diligence, though not a substitute for a formal risk assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Research Security Monitor 2025 binding on EU Member States?
No. It is a baseline, comparative policy assessment intended for peer learning, not a binding instrument or compliance checklist.
Has the Council Recommendation on science diplomacy actually been adopted, or is it still a proposal?
The Commission proposed the text on 27 February 2026. Per the Council of the EU’s own press release, the Council formally adopted its recommendation defining the science diplomacy framework on 29 May 2026.
Does this package change EU export-control or dual-use compliance obligations?
No. Those obligations continue to run through the separate, binding EU Dual-Use Export Control Regulation 2021/821 and related national licensing authorities, not through the Research Security Monitor or the science-diplomacy recommendation.
Where can I read the Commission’s own announcement?
The Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation published its announcement and links to the underlying documents on 27 February 2026 via its official research-and-innovation news portal.
