Guidelines on Export Controls

The Department of Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Department of State’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restrict the export of certain technology or technical data, such as military applications (regulated by ITAR) or commercial applications that may also have value in a military context (regulated by EAR), overseas and to foreign nationals working in or visiting the United States.

In some circumstances, the University may be required to obtain prior approval from the appropriate agency before allowing foreign nationals to participate in research, collaborate with a foreign company, or share research results with foreign nationals. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulates trade embargoes, sanctions, and travel restrictions and restricts exportation of information and research articles to embargoed entities and persons.

These regulations, which have been in place for over twenty years, carry a range of potential penalties, including imprisonment, for individuals who violate them. This page provides guidance to Yale faculty, students, and staff so that they may recognize when the regulations may apply and when an export or OFAC license may be required in connection with research. In case of questions, please email Export Controls at exports@yale.edu.

If you use eShipGlobal to ship the samples, the appropriate checks will occur to determine if the shipment is allowable. If your collaborator is within the US, use eShipGlobal. All academic institutions are subjected to the same laws and federal regulations, so I would make it very clear that onward transfer of material is prohibited by the DOJ final rule. Please access Yale’s Shipping Policy and eShipGlobal portal. Access Yale’s Shipping Policy and eShipGlobal portal on Yale’s Environmental Health & Safety webpage.

The NIH Biospecimen policy applies to all human biospecimens from US persons, that are supported by NIH funds.  The DOJ bulk data transfer final fuel applies to human ‘omic data and biospecimen transactions (pg. 111).

The NPRM proposed prohibiting any U.S. person from knowingly engaging in any covered data transaction involving human genomic data that provides a country of
concern or covered person with access to bulk U.S. sensitive personal data that consists of human genomic data or to human biospecimens from which such human genomic data could be derived, where the number of U.S. persons in the dataset is greater than the applicable bulk threshold at any point in the preceding 12 months, whether in a single covered data transaction or aggregated across covered data transactions.

Please refer to Yale’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) page for information on regulations for non-human samples.