University of Illinois the latest US school to end research collaboration with China’s Huawei

The University of Illinois is the latest US educational institution to end research collaboration with Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies amid federal investigations into the company and its alleged potential security risks.

The decision was announced last week via email to faculty and staff in the College of Engineering, which ranked 10th in the US News and World Report’s list of top American engineering schools.

“Effective immediately, the university will not be accepting any new grants, contracts or gifts from Huawei or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates,” engineering dean Rashid Bashir and interim vice chancellor for research Susan A Martinis wrote in an email obtained by the South China Morning Post.

“Faculty members with existing agreements have been notified of this decision, and they will be allowed to spend down their existing funding balances to complete the originally contracted scope of work. New agreements or proposals will not be approved or accepted by the university.”

The University of Illinois is the latest in a growing number of American schools that have ended collaboration with Huawei since the US government brought criminal charges against the company earlier this year, accusing it of intellectual property theft and violating US sanctions on Iran.

Stanford University, University of California at San Diego and its flagship Berkeley campus, University of Minnesota, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have also suspended research ties with the Chinese company. With University of Illinois joining the list, four of the top 10 engineering schools in the US have shunned Huawei.