DEEMED EXPORTS

GUIRR CHAMPION
Sam Armstrong

This working group of 10 GUIRR members and 7 federal collaborators (including a representative of the Commerce Dept.) is seeking to arrive at an understanding with the Commerce Dept. on potential implications of the Commerce Inspector General’s (IG’s) report released in March 2004. The working group coordinates closely with the efforts underway at the American Association of Universities (AAU) and the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR). GUIRR’s motive in this dialogue is to bring forward the perspectives of the research-funding agencies and the companies that partner with universities. There is substantial concern in the university-related community that the Commerce IG recommendations, if implemented, would effectively prohibit the access of foreign students/postdocs/visiting scholars to equipment in U.S. university laboratories. The concern stems from the sheer quantity of common laboratory equipment on the Commerce Control List, and the IG’s opinion that universities are not exempt from adhering to these controls by virtue of the so-called “fundamental research exemption.” In 2004-5 working group produced a series of teleconferences, a November 9 meeting for National Academies leadership, a January 31 Leadership dinner, and a May 6 open forum (in collaboration with the Roundtable on Scientific Communication and National Security, and the Science, Technology and Law unit of the National Academies; see link for detail on this event). The increased visibility provided by GUIRR and its collaborating organizations has resulted in approximately 300 letters being sent by the research community in response to the March 28, 2005 Federal Register Notice.