Question 8
Have you entered into a Non-Disclosure Agreement or a Confidentiality Agreement for any item, information or software to be shared, shipped, transmitted or transferred as part of the research project?
*Important Information about NDAs and Confidentiality Agreements:
Researchers may be asked to accept confidential, proprietary or export controlled data or material as part of a research project subject to a Non-Disclosure Agreement signed by both the discloser and the recipient. NDAs may include licensing agreements which limit or prohibit the disclosure or transfer of the licensed data or materials.
In addition, if you accept confidential or proprietary information subject to a Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure Agreement, and the disclosure restrictions affect your ability to publish research results, the research itself will lose its characterization as “fundamental research” for export control purposes. Should the research entail information or software identified on U.S. export control lists, and you wish to have foreign nationals participate in the research, you may be required to obtain an export license.
Of course, if the confidential data pertains to such information as personal health, income or other demographic data that does not have a strategic significance (and is thus not identified on U.S. export control lists), then export control restrictions on foreign national participation would not apply.
NDAs and similar confidentiality agreements must be entirely peripheral to the research program (sufficiently remote from the intellectually significant portions of the research) and the disclosure restriction must not affect the ability to publish the research results.
If you accept confidential or proprietary information subject to a Confidentiality or Non-Disclosure Agreement, and you have agreed that the information may not be published or made publicly available as part of your research results, this information will be considered to be export-controlled. As a result, if you wish to share that information with a foreign national (including foreign nationals here at ASU), you may be required to obtain an export license.
If you have any questions about this, or if you are asked to sign such an agreement, contact Research Compliance at [email protected] and ask for a review of the agreement.