The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is considering new restrictions on its grant review process and clarifications of its funding-disclosure rules to prevent foreign governments from stealing intellectual property or influencing the results of research at US institutions.

The move comes in response to mounting concerns from Congress and the White House that citizens of other countries could be stealing US secrets through universities and other research institutions. Internal investigations at the NIH have found such breaches among some of the researchers that it funds. But NIH director Francis Collins declined to comment on what he said were ongoing investigations.

Since August, a working group led by Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, has been developing a set of recommendations to prevent leaks of intellectual property at the NIH and institutions that it funds.

The proposal, presented on 13 December at a meeting of a council that advises the NIH director in Bethesda, Maryland, urges the agency to clarify its rules about when researchers should disclose foreign funding and collaborations. Wilson’s team says that the NIH needs to better educate institutions and researchers about those policies, and the risks of having confidential grant information stolen. The group also recommends that the agency institute security measures such as preventing peer reviewers from downloading or printing grants under review.

Agency officials say that they want to balance security measures against concerns that instituting overly strict rules could stigmatize foreign researchers, who make up about 30% of the scientists and engineers working in the United States.

The NIH has not yet formally accepted the recommendations, which the agency’s lawyers are reviewing.