Participants are reminded that this is an international conference. They should therefore carry out due diligence in relation to their home country's regulations concerning sharing of information regarding quantum or other sensitive technologies.
With overseas conferences being a normal part of academic life, researchers will understandably focus on their presentations and potential research opportunities, rather than the security issues.
For reference, guidance relevant to the UK, issued by the University of Manchester, is supplied below.
Speakers and attendees should:
- Think carefully about what information they share or present- If it is controlled under an export control rating code they should confirm that as the recipient cannot take that information out of the country (in the shape of notes taken in the conference or photos taken of the presentation) without an export licence from the UK government. Be wary of questions and consider if your answer could be within the scope of export controls before answering.
- Make sure they understand the UK’s attitude to freedom of speech and academic freedom (Policy on Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom (The University of Manchester)).
- Is their data or content of their presentation in the public domain (i.e. has it been published before this event?)
- University of Manchester staff and students attending the conference should use the following risk assessment to determine the level of risk of the research projects they are planning on sharing or discussing (Quantum technologies Risk Assessment for UoM staff and students attending conference.pdf)
- Be polite but firm if pressed to share more information
- Report any suspicions to your manager and the Head of Research Security and Compliance at the University of Manchester.
- Are there IP considerations, such as disclosure, to be addressed?
- Will there be any additional activities which take place outside of the conference? If so, do you need to undertake any additional processes (e.g. risk assessment, legal compliance etc.)? For example, will they visit any university facilities or meet with any university staff and/or students?
- Any ad-hoc data requests should be refused
- Attendees’ USB sticks and other devices must not be plugged into university devices / network.
Further guidance from the University of Manchester's Regulatory Compliance team is as follows.
1) High level discussions do not need export clearance, i.e, “to establish a good relationship with and to explore opportunities for further communication or exchange.”
2) If the UoM staff wish to exchange technical details for the general discussion to be meaningful, they will require export clearance. For this, they need to provide a summary of the project that they plan to discuss so the Research Compliance Office can assess the risk of that project being shared with the institutions linked to each of the visitors.
If staff decide that they fall under option 1 above, and they decide to start a relationship with a collaborative partner, they will need export clearance. If they decide that the possible new relationship is informal (i.e. without signed contractual agreements), the responsibility of undertaking due diligence and knowing their partners and liability still sits with the PIs. The University does not make it compulsory to request due diligence checks for all informal relationships.
The central Compliance team will undertake any requests for due diligence relating to formal or informal relationships.
Further relevant guidance can be found here:
https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/export-controls-info/travelling-abroad/hosting-conferences/
