Human Resources at SLAC

SLAC’s UFVA Program in the Context of Stanford University Research

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), as an integral academic unit of Stanford Univer­sity, conducts its research activities in an open environment.  Consis­tent with one of the University’s most fundamental policies, the Openness in Research policy at Section 2.6 of Stanford’s Research Policy Handbook (http://rph.stanford.edu/2-6.html), SLAC is committed to the principle of freedom of access by all interested parties to the underlying data, to the processes and to the final results of research.  In keeping with this commitment, SLAC will not ac­cept research agreements that limit the publication of results, or that limit the participation of research­ers in the conduct of intellectually significant research tasks on the basis of citizenship.  As such, SLAC will only conduct basic and applied research whose results are intend­ed to be shared broadly with the interested scientific community. 

At the same time, SLAC is fully committed to complying with all applicable US laws and regulations that pertain to the conduct and dissemination of our research and its products.  Researchers at SLAC will likely, at one time or another, intersect with federal regulations that impose access, dissemination or participation “controls” on the transfer of proprietary materials, equipment and technology to non-US persons.  Non-US persons are those who neither hold US citizenship nor Lawful Permanent Resident status (“green card” hold­ers).  In addition, researchers will likely come across controls on the transfer of information to, or ac­cess to certain materials or devices by, non-US persons for reasons of national security, foreign policy, anti-terrorism, or non-proliferation.  In these situations, researchers are dealing with the Export Control Regulations of the United States.

SLAC’s UFVA Program and the Fundamental Research Safe Harbor

SLAC’s basic and applied research is considered public domain “fun­damental research”.  Fundamental research is generally accorded ex­empt status under US export con­trol regulations.  International shipments of tangible items (materials, equipment, components etc.) used in the conduct of fundamental re­search, however, are not treated as exempt from export control regula­tions.  When these export control regulations apply, SLAC adheres to the export control policies articu­lated at RPH 10.2.  The shipping or sharing of export controlled items and information may require SLAC to receive authorization from the US Government in the form of an export license.  An export license permits controlled tangible items or software to be sent outside of the US, or for controlled informa­tion or software code to be shared with foreign persons in the US (a “deemed export”) or abroad.  

Most of the tangible items, infor­mation or software that SLAC ships or shares with its colleagues and research partners is not of a nature that would be restricted for these purposes, nor are they frequently destined for countries or individu­als subject to US embargoes or sanctions.  SLAC, however, is re­quired to demonstrate its export control due diligence and to docu­ment its adherence to US export controls and trade sanctions laws when these controls apply.  SLAC’s eShipper process is to be used for all international shipments of labo­ratory materials, equipment, and property.  University documenta­tion policies are found in the Forms section of http://export.stanford.edu/.