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Research Integrity and Compliance

Sensitive Information

Export control laws and regulations do not protect against all potential misappropriation of intellectual property. However, there are steps that academic scientists can take to ensure that important collaborations are successful while protecting the economic and national defense interests of the US.

Recognition of Sensitive Information

It is challenging to predict what types of research results may be sensitive information in terms of being of benefit to foreign nations and industries.  Categories of research results that tend to have a greater likelihood of qualifying as sensitive information are (i) proprietary and confidential technical data; (ii) novel materials, such as biological materials, engineering materials, chemicals, electronics, and nuclear materials; (iii) software programs and systems, and computer networks; (iv) novel algorithms and scientific insights.  Unfortunately much of what academic researchers discover falls into one of these categories.  Acknowledging this, we have the following suggestions:

  • Use care when conducting research involving Dual Use Technology. Dual Use Technology includes “items, information, and software designed for commercial or civil purposes, but with potential military applications”.  Dual Use Technology is often sensitive when it can be reasonably anticipated to provide knowledge, information, products, or technologies that could be directly misapplied to pose a significant threat with broad potential consequences to public health and safety, agricultural crops and other plants, animals, the environment, materiel, or national security.
  • Think about the information you share from research proposals, and with whom it is shared. Proposals may serve as roadmaps to development of dual use technology or other sensitive information, even if actual experiments supporting the research hypothesis have not been performed.

Know your collaborator

Most researchers know their collaborators quite well, including their backgrounds, employment history and areas of scientific interest.  This knowledge is not always complete, especially in newly formed collaborations.  It is recommended that researchers confirm some basic information regarding their collaborators, either through direct discussion or via internet searchers, and are aware of collaborators’ relations with institutions or companies located outside the US.