New guidance for international collaborations

March 14, 2024

Our office has created new guidance to help researchers better understand how export control regulations could impact their international collaborations. This guidance may be found under the Resources section of the Export Control website or at the following direct link.

International Collaborations and Export Controls

About Export Control

Export control regulations are federal laws that restrict the export of specific items, information, and software for reasons related to U.S. national security, economic and foreign policy goals. The University is committed to complying with all U.S. export control laws in both research and non-research activities.

Export controls usually arise for one or more of the following reasons:

  • The nature of the export has actual or potential military applications or economic protection issues
  • Government concerns about the destination country, organization, or individual, and
  • Government concerns about the declared or suspected end use or the end user of the export

Export control regulations cover shipments of controlled physical items, such as scientific equipment that require export licenses from the United States to a foreign country, and transfers of controlled information, including technical data.

The University must also comply with federal regulations when faculty and students travel to certain sanctioned or embargoed countries for purposes of teaching or performing research.

While most exports do not require government licenses, licenses are required for exports that the U.S. government considers "controlled" under:

Because the University embraces the concepts of academic freedom and open publication and dissemination of research findings and results, the export control regulations present unique challenges. Fortunately, both the EAR and the ITAR exclude fundamental research from the requirements of the regulations. Fundamental research is defined as "basic and applied research in science and engineering conducted at an institution of higher learning in the United States where the resulting information is ordinarily published and shared broadly within the scientific community, as distinguished from research the results of which are restricted for proprietary reasons or specific U.S. Government access and dissemination controls." Information which is publicly available also is excluded from the purview of the export control regulations. To guarantee the application of these exclusions, researchers should publish their findings to the fullest extent possible and should not agree to confidentiality clauses or other terms that restrict the dissemination of research materials and results.

The fundamental research and public domain exclusions do not apply to tangible items that are being taken or shipped outside of the U.S. In such cases, those items must be analyzed to determine whether they are subject to export controls. For assistance with this process and with obtaining an export license if necessary, please contact exportcontrol@research.ucsb.edu. The process of obtaining an export license from the government can be lengthy, so please plan accordingly.

 

Previous Export Compliance Alerts

February 2022 - Russia related sanctions

NOTE: If you are engaged in any current or planned activities or agreements with entities or individuals in Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus, please contact exportcontrol@research.ucsb.edu for guidance. Examples of potentially impacted activities include:

  1. Exporting or importing items, technology or services;
  2. Engaging in financial or other transactions or entering into agreements with parties in any of the listed regions; or
  3. Traveling to any of those regions.
     

More details on the recent U.S. sanctions may be found at the following links:

December 6, 2022

The United States Department of Commerce has published a new export control rule that covers advanced semiconductors, computing chips, items containing them, and transactions involving supercomputer and semiconductor end uses. The rule results in new restrictions on exports of items, technology and services. While the new export controls are largely targeted at the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”), the scope and likely impact extend beyond the PRC.

Under revisions to federal export control laws a license may be required for activities involving advanced computing chips, semiconductors, integrated circuits or supercomputers. Contact the Export Control office (exportcontrol@research.ucsb.edu) for review of any:

  • Research, services (e.g., design, testing, analysis) and collaboration related to computing chips, semiconductors, integrated circuits, components (e.g., wafers, etc.) or technology (e.g., designs), or
  • Research and services related to supercomputers and supercomputer technology.