UCOP Offering Webinar on International Collaborations and Complying with Regulations for Researchers and Administrators

The UCOP Office of Ethics, Compliance and Audit Services is holding a 90-minute webinar, “International Research Collaborations & Complying with OFAC Regulations: What You Need To Know,” that will help explain the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations and how they impact our work. This webinar is intended for researchers engaged in international collaborations and the administrators supporting them. The webinar is scheduled for February 16, 2011, from 10–11:30 a.m.

International research collaborations are an important part of our research enterprise. Researchers are often invited by research institutions in foreign countries to collaborate on projects, provide guidance, travel to and teach in these countries. As we engage in these collaborative activities it is critical that we are aware of how the OFAC regulations affect us, and how we should comply.

OFAC broadly restricts research and related business activities with embargoed countries including Iran, Cuba, Syria and the Sudan. Many of these restrictions require that an OFAC license be obtained prior to engaging in such activity. Failure to obtain a license can result in monetary penalties and sanctions assessed against the individual violator and/or UC as an institution. Within the last two years, OFAC has visibly stepped up its enforcement of compliance among major research institutions.

This session will include practical information on the following:

• Research Collaborations: importing and exporting materials, samples, equipment and technical data
• Travel to embargoed countries to attend conferences, conduct research and to teach
• Peer review and editorial services to researchers based in embargoed countries
• Responding to inquiries from embargoed countries pertaining to published or web-available research results
• Sending funds directly or indirectly to embargoed countries
• Screening for restricted end users based in embargoed countries

UCOP plans to publish further information closer to February 16, and that information will be published here. Please contact Tim Mulshine (tim.mulshine@ucop.edu) for questions related to the webinar.

Update: Register with ReadyTalk.