Under federal export control regulations, U.S. persons and entities may not engage with certain international entities, including persons, academic institutions, governments, companies, or other entities. These entities are referred to as restricted parties. Some restricted parties are in the US, but most are international.
Before considering a research collaboration, or any exchange of material or information, MIT researchers should screen their collaborators (including people, academic institutions, governments and companies) against the restricted parties lists. Screen for restricted parties before doing any of the following:
- International research collaborations (screening collaborators)
- Teaching courses abroad or online (screening students and host institutions)
- Presenting at conferences (screening conference sponsors)
- Hosting international visitors
- Exchanging personnel, materials, data, technical information, or money (screen recipients or sponsors)
How to screen for restricted parties
To screen for restricted parties, use Visual Compliance, which checks over 80 lists of restricted parties.
Register for Visual Compliance
- Go to https://www.visualcompliance.com/usr to create your account and password
- If your department, lab, center, or office is not listed, select OTHER.
- After you submit, you will receive a confirmation email. Open the email and click on the link to finalize your registration.
Screen a person or entity in Visual Compliance
To screen a person in Visual Compliance, first screen the person’s name, then screen their home institution. Do not combine name and home institution in one search.
- Log in to Visual Compliance
- At the top of the page, click the RPS button.
- If screening for a person, enter the person’s name in the Name field. If screening for a company, university or other legal entity, enter the name of the entity in the Company field. (Do not combine name and company in one search.)
- Set Fuzzy Level to 2.
- Click Screen.
- Contact MIT Export Control if your screening identifies a match. Do not proceed with the collaboration until you have discussed the results with MIT Export Control.
Most matches for people are caused by similar names, and MIT Export Control can help resolve these. Matches on the Department of Commerce Entity List, Department of Commerce “Unverified” List, Unitracker, and the Department of Treasury Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List should be reported as soon as possible to MIT Export Control.