When a Department of War component selects a fundamental research proposal for award, it runs a risk-based security review against a published decision matrix. Here is what the 2026 matrix asks, factor by factor, and how SYSWERX shows your office the same reading before the program office makes its call.
The 2026 DoW Component Decision Matrix to Inform Fundamental Research Proposal Mitigation Decisions updates the 2025 matrix. It was cleared for open publication on March 9, 2026.
Department of War components (the military departments, defense agencies and the rest) reviewing fundamental research proposals selected for potential award. It looks at the proposal's covered individuals, such as the principal investigator and co-principal investigators.
The June 8, 2023 Policy for Risk-Based Security Reviews of Fundamental Research, and the January 7, 2026 memorandum Fundamental Research Security Initiatives and Implementation.
Every factor looks back five years, and every entity is judged against the Prohibited Entity Lists as they stand at the time of review.
For each factor, the matrix says what is prohibited, what requires mitigation measures, and what needs none. Two of the four factors have no prohibited outcome at all.
The Prohibited Entity Lists are thirteen U.S. government lists kept by the Departments of War, the Treasury, Commerce, State and Homeland Security and by the FCC, named in full in the matrix itself.
Collaborations with international researchers do not require mitigation if none of the four factors is involved. The matrix calls international collaboration an important way of taking part in the global scientific commons.
Co-authorship is a category where mitigation is expected, and it should not be a basis for rejecting a proposal. Co-authorship and co-patents help complete the picture but are not, on their own, sufficient cause to deny funding.
A pattern of material omissions of foreign affiliations, foreign funding, or intellectual property filings and partnerships raises additional concerns in the review.
An affiliation is an academic, professional or institutional appointment or position, full-time, part-time or voluntary, including adjunct, visiting, post-doctoral and honorary. Undergraduate and graduate students are not counted.
Indicators can come from proposal disclosures, publications, CVs, institution website announcements or social media posts. Participation in a talent program can be shown by a publication's acknowledgment naming the researcher and the program.
Mitigation reduces the severity or the effects of a research security risk. What mitigation is required is a fact-based determination made at the program level, case by case.
The matrix opens with actions that statute and policy rule out regardless of the table.
The program office makes the decision. Your office can see the same four factors first, settle what the record shows, and arrive with a mitigation plan instead of a surprise.
A published guide that Department of War components use in risk-based security reviews of fundamental research proposals selected for award. It sorts four factors (talent programs, funding, patents and entity lists) into prohibited, mitigation required, or no mitigation needed, over the past five years.
Yes. The 2026 version uses the name Department of War (DoW); the 2023 policy and earlier matrices said Department of Defense (DoD). It is the same department and the same kind of review; the matrix was updated in 2025 and again in 2026.
No. The matrix says co-authorship is a category where mitigation is expected and should not be a basis for rejection, and that international collaboration needs no mitigation when none of the factors applies.
No. The matrix counts appointments and positions, including adjunct, visiting, post-doctoral and honorary ones, but not undergraduate or graduate students.
The program office, case by case. What mitigation is required is a fact-based determination at the program level. SYSWERX shows your office the same factors and facts first; it does not make the funding decision.
It is how one funding agency carries out research security reviews for fundamental research, alongside the NSPM-33 program elements and the CHIPS Act certifications. How SYSWERX supports NSPM-33 →
This page summarizes the 2026 DoW Component Decision Matrix to Inform Fundamental Research Proposal Mitigation Decisions (cleared for open publication March 9, 2026) for orientation. The cleared document governs; your sponsored programs office and the program office have the final word.
Bring a researcher on an upcoming Department of War proposal. We'll show the four factors, the facts behind each, and the mitigation plan it leads to.