A new study finds that when research that can be used both for vaccine development and as biological weapons, such as virus mutation studies, is regulated in the name of security, it ends up constraining scientific progress while doing little to achieve security goals. Provided by Getty Image Bank
Large-scale data analysis has confirmed that tightened research regulations in the name of national security are constraining core scientific progress while making it difficult to actually achieve security objectives.
Kwon Seok-Bum, a professor at the KAIST College of Business (Department of Management Engineering), used large-scale data analysis to demonstrate that strengthened security regulations on dual-use research can dampen core scientific advancement, and published the findings on the 4th (local time) in the international journal ‘Science’.
Dual-use research refers to work that can both benefit humanity, such as developing vaccines and therapeutics, and at the same time be used for security risks such as biological weapons or bioterrorism. Studies on virus mutations or pathogen transmission are representative examples. The United States has conducted prior security reviews of federally involved research based on National Security Decision Directive 189, and in 2025 introduced additional regulations through a presidential executive order.
Professor Kwon analyzed about 600,000 papers using a new methodology that combines security review records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with patent–paper citation data.
The analysis found that dual-use research consistently had greater scientific impact than ordinary research. In other words, the more likely research is to be subject to regulation, the more likely it is to play an important role in scientific progress.
By contrast, the share of dual-use research in which the U.S. federal government was directly involved fell from about 41% in 1981 to about 22% in 2005, while over the same period the share led by foreign institutions rose from 35% to 54%. This indicates that as the United States has tightened constraints on its own research, dual-use research of a similar level has grown overseas, gradually weakening the effectiveness of unilateral regulatory tightening.
Professor Kwon said, “When only one country strengthens regulations, it can end up placing disproportionate restrictions on domestically conducted research with major scientific impact, while failing to block the development of equally important research abroad,” adding, “International cooperation and well-balanced policy design are needed.”
doi.org/10.1126/science.aee2479
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