Sanctions search engine for ETH Zurich
As a leading international university, ETH Zurich places great significance on its international relationships and partnerships. Despite the numerous advantages they afford, one should still exercise caution when pursuing activities in the international arena, as potential contractual partners might be on an official sanctions list. A new search tool has been launched to help you do your due diligence.
Anyone who wishes to enter into a contract with business partners must first ensure that the contractual partner is not subject to trade embargoes or comparable restrictions. However, it isn’t always easy to determine whether this is the case.
For this reason, the in-house Export Control Office has been supporting members of the ETH community on these matters for quite some time now. Silvia Nast heads up the office and advises researchers on whether the knowledge they intend to share across borders can be used not only to benefit civilians but also for military purposes – a concept referred to as “dual use”. This applies to goods, software and technologies as well as knowledge exchange among experts, both verbally and in writing. “National and international export controls can become relevant when inviting guests to ETH, where unpublished knowledge will be discussed, or when hiring new employees,” explains Nast. “Especially when the unpublished expert knowledge being discussed could be useful not only for civilian but also for military purposes, or when people from countries on the embargo list apply for research positions. In this case, it’s a must to conduct an export control review for the area of expertise that the job opening falls under.”
New time-saving tool
These example scenarios make it clear that export control issues are anything but trivial and can have far-reaching consequences. “Violations, even those arising from carelessness, can trigger huge fines for individuals, and even prison sentences in more severe cases,” says Nast.
This is why Nast decided around a year and a half ago to acquire software for ETH Zurich which would allow all ETH members to check whether potential contractual partners are on a sanctions list. However, there was no such software available on the market, which prompted the idea to have custom software coded at ETH. It was possible to do sanctions checks before, but it required reviewing various international sanctions list one by one. “This was a time consuming and somewhat cumbersome process, since all the lists are constructed differently,” explains Nast. The new sanctions list search tool makes it possible to do a sanctions check with a single search.
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Info portal for employees with the key information about what’s going on at ETH Zurich.
Combining international sanction lists in one place
The new search engine combines the official sanctions lists from Switzerland, the EU, the US and the United Kingdom and updates them on a daily basis. “The programme greatly simplifies the process compared to before,” says Nast.
Performing a search with the tool is very fast indeed: simply enter the name of the contractual partner or organisation and pull up a list with all entries from the four aforementioned sanction lists. Ideally, you won’t get any hits. The results can be exported as an Excel file and filed away in case of any future audits. “But if you get one or more hits when doing a sanction check, you need to get in touch with the Export Control Office afterwards,” explains Nast. “We’ll then take over and conduct a more detailed review and advise you on what the best next steps would be.”
Unique and exclusively for ETH Zurich
The sanctions search programme is available to all members of the ETH community and can only be accessed from an ETH computer. “The programme is the only one of its kind for Swiss universities. No other university in Switzerland has a detailed in-house search tool like this one,” says Nast.
Cooperation with Young’n’Rising
The search tool was developed by Young’n’Rising. The team is led by ETH apprentices and offers services to the ETH community in the form of interdisciplinary projects. In addition to the high quality standards for the final product, the Young’n’Rising apprentices also emphasise the practical experience and skill development aspects of their projects.
“I’m very enthusiastic about our work with Young’n’Rising,” remarks Nast. “From our first meeting until the delivery of the final product, I always felt very well supported and taken care of as a customer. Working together with this team of apprentices is something I can heartily recommend to everyone at ETH.”
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