Introducing Legal Logic by TechTransfer! Our legal department brings you monthly highlights on topics of interest.
this month's highlight will be the guidelines for researchers on dual use and misuse of research. The Flemish universities, along with other organizations, have developed updated guidelines to help researchers understand the concepts of dual use and misuse of research. These guidelines aim to make researchers aware of European legislation and their obligations regarding dual-use research. Click on the link below to discover the guidelines on dual use.
Guidelines for researchers on dual use and misuse of research
Dual use? Misuse of research? You may not have heard of these concepts before or you may not be very sure what they mean.
That is why the Flemish universities, together with imec, VIB, the Institute of Tropical Medicine, VITO and FlandersMake, have developed an update of the guidelines that aim to make researchers aware of the dual use and possible misuse of research.
More particularly, the publication aims to familiarize them with the rather complex European legislation and obligations. It does so by providing researchers with concrete guidelines and examples to determine whether the dual-use legislation applies to their research and, if so, what steps they should take.
These guidelines describe the expectations and obligations of researchers in research that might be dual use or misused.
They start with a contextualization of the application of the dual use legislation with three possible situations. Then follows a clear set of defined notions, an overview of categories of materials and items, TRL based requirements and exceptions, application in- and outside of the EU etc. both from a legal and an ethical aspect.
The guidelines can be used as a checklist for compliance and it also contains useful links and contact information if you have remaining questions.
More information here and VUB’s Legal and Ethics Committee.
