Export controls are a series of federal laws and regulations that, if applicable to your research, will determine how you use and share equipment, materials, software and technology within your lab. They can also limit how you collaborate with foreign colleagues.


Research that is "subject to export controls" must generally have a technology control plan to:

  • protect the technologies and data underlying or created as a result of the research;
  • address any "deemed exports" inherent in the research; and ultimately
  • preserve the benefits to the researcher and to the university.

As the following links will explain, there are nuances to making the determination as to whether university research is subject to export controls, and different tools to facilitate such research when it is controlled or restricted. Most notably, the Office of Export Controls will strive to preserve certain aspects as "fundamental research" (i.e. not subject to export controls) and can assist you, at various stages in the project lifecycle, to accept, conduct and in some cases publish covered or restricted research.