There is a fine line between working with the international scientific community and sharing sensitive information that could put other countries at an advantage, according to Director of the Office of Sponsored Research John Childress and Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor Michael Goldfarb.

"Contracts always stipulate under what terms the research can be done. The reality is that faculty members, I would say around 90 percent, don't read all the wording in the contracts," said Goldfarb. "Vanderbilt has a department that deals with contracts and I think it's very good at dealing with this type of problem.

Vanderbilt won't accept research funds if the terms of the contracts aren't consistent with the University's policies."
Goldfarb also said Vanderbilt didn't engage in any classified research on campus.

When it comes to sharing information with foreign countries, professors should have enough common sense to filter out sensitive information from their conversations, according to Childress.

"We do share information with other countries and we do anything we can do to encourage it. We are not trying to prevent those kinds of arrangements. We just want to make sure people understand that this is an issue," said Childress. "It comes back to the faculty member's level of understanding. There are a few sensitive issues, generally regarding the sharing of military technology information, that might put American citizens in danger."

To confront the problem, Vanderbilt keeps its faculty informed so they can distinguish restricted areas of information.
"If someone thinks they need help in a delicate issue they can contact us and we can discuss the problem," Childress said.

In addition to dictating the ways professors conduct their research, export controls also affect foreign exchange students. According to Catherine Ruelens, a sophomore Engineering student from Belgium, students have to be mindful of what they do with their access to important data.

"I wouldn't reveal sensitive information to my country," said Ruelens. "You have to have some common sense."

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