An agreement that gives Qatar ownership of all intellectual property generated by a Texas A&M University campus there drew criticism recently when the latest contract outlining the deal was published online.
In a lengthy expose on the arrangement between the university and Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, the Free Press, an outlet founded by former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss, outlined the national security implications of a major U.S. research university handing over research to a country that has relations with nations such as Iran.
The Texas A&M University at Qatar, or TAMUQ, was established in May 2003. An index to the most recent 95-page contract between the school and the country, signed in 2014, is dedicated to the handling and ownership of intellectual property.
“The Qatar Foundation shall own the entire right, title, and interest in all Technology and Intellectual Property developed at TAMUQ or under the auspices of its Research Program, other than those developed by non-TAMUQ employees and without financial support from the Qatar Foundation,” the document reads.
Texas A&M had $35.7 million in National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) funding through at least 68 contracts in 2020, according to the school’s website. In that year, the university had 101 faculty and staff actively engaged in NNSA research.
The university is one of three founding partners – with the University of California and Battelle – in Triad National Security, which holds the operations and management contract for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, one of the two U.S. nuclear-weapon design laboratories.
It is also an affiliated partner with Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, the management contractor for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, involved with the board oversight of Sandia National Laboratories and has a field office at the Pantex Plant nuclear weapons assembly house near Amarillo, Texas.
However, the Qatar campus is essentially a separate entity with its own faculty and staff, managed by a six-member advisory board, three of each appointed by the U.S.-based university and the Qatar Foundation, according to the contract.
The courses the Qatar campus are limited to masters of science or engineering in chemical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and petroleum engineering, as stipulated in the written agreement.
The U.S. does not allow any sharing of nuclear technology or research with countries not bound by treaty or other agreement to limit its use to peaceful purposes and there is no evidence that Texas A&M is violating export laws, the Free Press said.
