> If they were an educational non-profit, my guess is that they could find a way to somehow work with individual citizens of these countries.
Yeah, in academia we've generally been told (at more than one university) that educational contacts with individual students and researchers at universities in these countries are ok, barring a bunch of exceptions. Exceptions include: there must be no financial relationship (we can't hire someone in Syria, send them equipment, etc.), no relationship with business entities in those countries (no assistance to spinoff commercial research, etc.), the contacts can't involve certain "sensitive" subjects that are subject to technological export controls, and the contacts can't involve "specially designated nationals" who are specifically blacklisted. Oh and you should probably forget it if your lab has any DARPA contracts and/or any staff with security clearance. A bit of a minefield, but I know people who have worked with individual students and professors on research without complaint from the university legal department (or the U.S. government). One common angle recently is that individual Syrian students will try to find a non-Syrian academic collaborator to publish a paper with, in order to build a CV that can get them into a graduate program abroad (and thereby getting a visa to get out of Syria).
Yeah, in academia we've generally been told (at more than one university) that educational contacts with individual students and researchers at universities in these countries are ok, barring a bunch of exceptions. Exceptions include: there must be no financial relationship (we can't hire someone in Syria, send them equipment, etc.), no relationship with business entities in those countries (no assistance to spinoff commercial research, etc.), the contacts can't involve certain "sensitive" subjects that are subject to technological export controls, and the contacts can't involve "specially designated nationals" who are specifically blacklisted. Oh and you should probably forget it if your lab has any DARPA contracts and/or any staff with security clearance. A bit of a minefield, but I know people who have worked with individual students and professors on research without complaint from the university legal department (or the U.S. government). One common angle recently is that individual Syrian students will try to find a non-Syrian academic collaborator to publish a paper with, in order to build a CV that can get them into a graduate program abroad (and thereby getting a visa to get out of Syria).