Export Controls:
Overview
It is the University of Rhode Island’s (URI) policy that all personnel, including employees, visiting scientists, postdoctoral fellows, students, and other persons retained by or working at or for URI conduct their affairs in accordance with U.S. laws and regulations, including compliance with U.S. export control laws and regulations applicable to its operations.
Export controls are a dynamic and multi-faceted body of law and regulations that can affect a research institution in many ways. Compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements is critical because non-compliance may carry serious civil and/or criminal penalties for both the researcher and the institution. Export controls present a special challenge to research institutions because they demand that national security and the necessary safeguards it mandates be reconciled with the fundamental principle of unrestricted academic freedom, which includes the right to freely publish research findings within an unfettered global academic community.
Export Control Laws and Regulations provide significant exceptions for research performed in the United States that meets the definition of “Fundamental Research” and information that is considered to be in the “Public Domain.” Both of these exclusions were legislated to protect academic and intellectual freedoms which are fundamental URI commitments. See more discussion of these areas in the URI Export Controls Quick Guide.
URI is committed to monitoring URI’s transactions and relationships to ensure that export control requirements are met, provide guidance and training so that faculty and staff are aware of export control requirements, and manage export control-related correspondence and reporting so that government agencies are satisfied with URI’s compliance efforts, policies and procedures.