ETH Zurich has had a specialised export control office in place for some time and systematically carries out security checks on students and employees. Should other universities follow this example?
As a university with a strong international network that researches and teaches key technologies, ETH Zurich had already created a specialised export control office back in 2017, established clear processes and thereby complied with SECO’s requirements. We are happy to share our experience, and more and more Swiss universities have recently become active in this direction and are also benefiting from our expertise. It is important, however, that such a specialised unit is proportionate to the size and risk profile of an institution. It is quite conceivable that several smaller, less technically orientated universities could operate a joint office or source the necessary expertise externally.<\/p>\n
Where do you see scope for improvement in terms of the legislative foundation? \u00a0
The legal foundation for rejecting applicants for reasons of knowledge security \u2013 i.e. in order to protect sensitive information and expertise \u2013 must be improved at the national level. There is also a need for clear legal requirements governing and regulating the secure and data protection-compliant exchange of information between universities, authorities and security services that stipulate which data may be shared in which situations.<\/p>\n
Should this data be shared by way of a national coordination centre?\u00a0
We propose a national contact point based on the Dutch model: a central office that networks universities and the relevant authorities, coordinates the secure exchange of information, bundles strategic situation assessments and coordinates measures in response to changing security situations. Close international co-operation with selected countries would also be desirable.<\/p>\n
Where exactly should this office be located?\u00a0
That is still an open question.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ETH Zurich has had a specialised export control office in place for some time and systematically carries out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[6243,1202,38133,51],"class_list":["post-71801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zurich","tag-homehero","tag-news","tag-rectorate","tag-zurich"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116637075174073408","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}