Science reports that NIH and NASA issued new enforcement expectations restricting co-authorship with foreign-affiliated researchers tied to specific grant rules. NIH told some grantees to request advance permission for co-authorship with scholars affiliated with foreign institutions, even if the underlying work occurred in the United States. The reporting also describes instructions to remove from NIH progress reports any publications including foreign co-authors unless NIH previously approved a foreign component for the grant. The boundaries and scope appear tied to specific grant program structures. Science further reported that NASA told some funded institutions they may have violated federal law after researchers co-authored papers with scientists holding Chinese institutional affiliations. NASA did not respond to the publication’s request for comment. For research universities and principal investigators, the developments raise compliance planning needs for international collaboration workflows, publication tracking, and grant documentation to avoid jeopardizing federal funding.