If you have specific questions, please contact Research Compliance to discuss your individual situation.
Grant Review and Thesis Advising
In general, you can engage in the grant and proposal review processes, serve as a thesis advisor, and serve as a thesis referee, even for foreign institutions or international colleagues. Follow guidance around reporting, disclosures, and screening:
- Report any compensation you have received or substantial time you have committed as part of the outside professional activity (OPA) disclosure process.
- Disclose activities in connection with applications for federal funding, in accordance with agency-specific guidance.
- Report compensation greater than $5,000 as part of the financial conflict of interest disclosure process if you apply for external funding through MIT.
- Follow VPR guidance on assessing and mitigating risks.
- If engaging with a foreign university or organization, contact MIT Export Control to screen the organization against U.S. sanctions lists and learn about export control risks.
- If engaging with a university or organization in China, Russia, North Korea or Iran, contact Research Compliance to screen for foreign talent programs.
Students and International Collaborations
MIT’s sponsored research and collaborations regularly involve support for student researchers, and students may be involved in international collaborations.
Sharing Results
Research results that are ordinarily published and shared broadly are considered the results of fundamental research and may be shared throughout the world. All on‐campus research conducted by MIT is structured as fundamental research.
However, even if created or used in the course of fundamental research, physical items (e.g. a prototype, compound, physical model, or certain encryption software) are subject to U.S. export control restrictions. If you intend to ship physical items or transmit encryption software internationally, please contact MIT Export Control.
Letters of Recommendation
You may write letters of recommendation for students and colleagues, even to foreign universities or employers and regardless of whether the request comes from the individual or the university or employer.
If you are providing these types of recommendations in the ordinary course of academic practice at the request of students or colleagues with whom you have worked — and not in exchange for compensation, for other benefit, or as part of a formal engagement you may have individually entered into with a foreign government or institution — then we are not aware of any federal grant disclosure requirements for that activity at this time.
Follow VPR guidance on assessing and mitigating risks. If you have specific questions, please contact Research Compliance to discuss your individual situation, especially if:
- you are conducting talent recruitment for a foreign government or institution
- you have been asked to write letters of recommendation in exchange for compensation.
Updated November 25, 2024