COI Frequently Asked Questions

A conflict of interest is a situation in which a “Significant Financial Interest” may directly and significantly affect:

• A Researcher’s professional judgment in exercising any UTSA duty or responsibility or
• The design, conduct, or reporting of research or sponsored activities.

A financial or other interest in an entity external to UTSA (i.e., a Significant Financial Interest; SFI) may not be a conflict of interest. It depends on the actual or perceived influence the SFI has on your judgment as a UTSA employee or affiliate.

Examples of Conflicts of Interest

• Diverting research opportunities from the university to a consulting entity or business in which the faculty/researcher has a financial interest.
• Research conducted whereby any of the involved investigators (or a related person: spouse/domestic partner, dependent children/step-children and any other persons with whom you are financially interdependent) has employment or consulting arrangements and significant financial interests in the sponsor, or with subcontractors, vendors, or collaborators.
• Use of university resources to conduct research or programs that are sponsored by an entity in which the faculty member/researcher or related person has a significant financial interest or could financially benefit.
• Serving as a consultant for an external for-profit entity which sponsors the faculty member’s/researcher’s research/program or provides gift funds for the researcher or his/her department.
• Hiring university students in consulting activities or a company in which the faculty member/researcher has financial interests. If the student’s thesis/dissertation research is supervised by the faculty member, the conflict of interest situation may not be manageable.
• Equity (ownership) interest of the faculty member (or a related person) in a sponsor.
• Serving as president or CEO, or holding any other position that requires involvement in the day-to-day operations of a for-profit sponsor. Such a situation often creates a significant conflict of commitment, which must be reduced in order to be manageable.
• Failure of the faculty member/researcher to fulfill university responsibilities (e.g., holding classes, advising students, conducting research, serving on departmental or university committees, supervising students in research lab), due to involvement in external activities.
• While acting in the context of his/her university duties, making professional referrals to or purchasing materials or services from a business in which an academic staff member or related person has a financial interest.
• Conducting clinical trials on a drug or device developed by the faculty member/researcher may be manageable if the research DOES NOT involve human research subjects.
• Gifts to the university, of cash or property, which will be under the control, or will directly support the teaching or research activities of a faculty member from an entity in which that faculty member (or related person) has an employment or consulting arrangement and/or significant financial interests.
• Serving on the board of directors or major advisory committee of an external for-profit entity which sponsors the faculty member’s/researcher’s research/pro

A state in which a UTSA employee’s Outside Activities or activities on behalf of an outside association, or an activity, could directly or significantly interfere with the employee’s fulfillment of their institutional responsibilities as created by competing demands on the individual’s time allocation. It also includes the employee’s use of State property without authority in connection with Outside Activities or Outside Board Service and when the employee exceeds the amount of total time permitted for outside activities by UTSA HOP 1.33.

Examples of Conflicts of Interest and Commitment

• Employees uses state property without authority in connection with his/her outside activity
• Employees exceeds the amount of total time permitted for outside activities

A significant financial interest is anything of monetary value, that:

• could reasonably appear to the general public as related to your institutional responsibilities (professional responsibilities on behalf of UTSA, such as teaching, research, and service for UTSA faculty) and
• was, in the past 12 months, received or held by you or
• was, in the past 12 months, received or held by a related person (spouse/domestic partner, dependent children/step-children, and other related persons with whom you are financially interdependent).

SFIs that must be disclosed include the following:

• Remuneration: includes payments, income, consulting fees, honoraria, paid authorship, etc.
  • The total of payments and equity held only if the sum exceeds $5,000 if the source is a publicly traded entity OR
  • Payments exceeding $5,000 if the source is a non-publicly traded entity (such as a startup company)
• Equity: includes stock, stock options, shares, and other ownership interest
  • The total of remuneration and equity held exceeds $5,000 if the source is a publicly traded entity OR
  • The equity is held in a non-publicly traded entity.
• Travel payments: includes travel reimbursements and sponsored travel paid on your behalf
  • If you have requested or received any funding from NIH/PHS in the past 12 months, disclose all travel payments OR
  • For all other researchers, disclose travel payments if the total from a single source exceeds $5,000.
    [Note: this part of the travel payment disclosure requirement is unique to the University of Texas System and is not required by federal regulation.]
• Intellectual property rights: includes patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
  • Royalties and any other remuneration received
  • Any rights held and any agreements to share in royalties related to those rights.
    [Note: federal regulation requires disclosure only if royalties are received. The University of Texas System requires the disclosure of additional information.]

The following exclusions apply and do not have to be disclosed:

• Any financial interests or activities that do not appear to the general public to be related to your professional responsibilities on behalf of UTSA.
• Salary, royalties, or other remuneration paid by UTSA.
• Income from seminars, lectures, teaching engagements, service on an advisory committee or review panel and travel reimbursements or sponsored travel from:
  • U.S. federal, state, or local governments,
  • U.S. institutions of higher education, academic teaching hospitals, medical centers, or
  • Research institutes affiliated with U.S. institutions of higher education.
• Income from certain investment vehicles (e.g., mutual funds, retirement accounts) if you do not directly control the investment decisions.

The CCOI Subcommittee and Office of Research Integrity will review the disclosure to decide if your SFI could be related to your research or sponsored activities.

• If yes, she will submit for review to the Committee on the Conflict of Interest (CCOI) in Research & Intellectual Property
• If no, she will consider the review completed.

The CCOI will recommend to the Responsible Official (Sr. Associate Vice President for Research)

• Whether the SFI is related to research, sponsored activities, or institutional responsibilities
• If so related, whether the financial interest was found to be a conflict of interest that could affect the design, conduct, or reporting of research.

• I serve as a consultant for a small company that is non-publicly traded. In exchange, the company has given me 2% equity in the company but has not paid me in any other way.
  • Update your disclosure to report the estimated value of your equity interest. All equity in a non-publicly traded company, regardless of value, must be disclosed. Note: if the company also pays you (consultant fees, honoraria, etc.), you must report when the total exceeds $5,000 in 12 months.
• I just returned from serving as a plenary speaker for my professional organization’s annual meeting and I have not submitted or worked on an NIH grant in the past 12 months.
  
  • Update your disclosure by adding any payments you received if the total exceeded $5,000, including honoraria, speaker fee(s), travel reimbursements or sponsored travel, waived registration, etc.
    In addition, travel reimbursements or sponsored travel must be disclosed separately if you received more than $5,000 in travel reimbursements or sponsorship from the organization over the past 12 months. You will report the purpose of the trip, sponsor, location, and duration. You must add travel to your disclosure even if no other payments were received.
• I gave a talk or seminar at a non-U.S. university
  
  • Update your disclosure by adding any payments and other remuneration you received, including honoraria, speaker fee(s), travel reimbursement or sponsored travel, etc. but only if the total remuneration exceeds $5,000 (unless you have applied for or received NIH funding, at which time you must disclose all travel regardless of the amount).
• I just got married.
  
  • Review your disclosure and add any SFIs for your newly related person that could reasonably appear to be related to your institutional responsibilities at UTSA, which also applies to any gifts you receive for the occasion.

• I recently served on an NIH review panel.
  
  • Review panel activities sponsored by U.S. federal agencies are not reportable.
• I gave a workshop at another university and they paid a small honorarium and paid for some of my travel costs.
  
  • Seminars and lectures to U.S. institutions of higher education are not reportable. (However, seminars and lectures to non-profit agencies are reportable.)
• I gave a workshop to SwRI and have been compensated.
  
  • Speaking engagements at research institutes affiliated with U.S. universities are not reportable. (However, if you are a SwRI employee, you must report your employment there.)
• My family owns a business that is not related to my research or my responsibilities at UTSA.
  
  • The SFI must reasonably appear to be related to your work at UTSA to be reportable.

Anyone responsible for the design, conduct, or reporting of research, regardless of their title or role on the project or the receipt of funding must file a Disclosure of Financial Interests. This includes:

• All tenured and tenure-track faculty;
• Non-tenure track faculty and staff responsible for research as described above;
• All individuals identified as responsible personnel on an IRB or IACUC protocol;
• Some adjunct faculty, students, volunteers, subcontractors, consultants, collaborators, research coordinators, research assistants, and other research staff, depending on their level of responsibility as determined by the Principal Investigator and/or Project Director;
• All named inventors, including students, on university intellectual property; and
• UTSA employees who are not researchers are required to disclose and request approval for outside activities in accordance with HOP 1.33 utilizing an online portal hosted by UT System

• any research project (funded or unfunded);
• expenditure of funds from grant or other sponsored program awards;
• submission of grant proposals and contracts;
• approval for the use of human subjects (IRB) or animals in research (IACUC);

The Office of Research Integrity reviews the Disclosure to determine if a potential conflict of interest (COI) exists and if a full review is necessary by the Conflict of Interest in Research and Intellectual Property (CCOI)

• If the Disclosure is submitted to the CCOI for review, Committee members review information related to all commitments and interests in light of related institutional responsibilities (e.g., research/sponsored activities, teaching, administrative duties and service) and makes recommendations to the Responsible Official for managing the COI. The CCOI considers issues such as:
  • The impact to UTSA’s academic, research, innovation, and community engagement missions
  • The risks the outside relationship or financial interest have on the integrity of the research/sponsored activity
  • The rights and obligations of collaborators and students participating in the research/sponsored activity
  • The rights and safety of human research subjects
  • The well-being and proper care of vertebrate animals
  • How the potential COI might appear to the scientific community and to the general public (i.e., the “newspaper headlines” test)
• The CCOI makes a recommendation to the Responsible Official for dealing with the COI. The recommendation includes:
  • A finding of whether or not the Significant Financial Interest (SFI) or commitment is related to any UTSA duty or responsibility, including research/sponsored activities
  • If so related, a finding of whether or not the SFI or commitment is a COI. A COI may exist when an SFI or commitment could directly and significantly affect (a) the researcher’s professional judgment in exercising any UTSA duty or responsibility or (b) the design, conduct, or reporting of the research/sponsored activity.
• The RO makes the final determination that an SFI or commitment is a COI.
• If the CCOI declares that you have a conflict of interest, it does not indicate wrongdoing. If a conflict of interest exists, it must be reduced, managed, or eliminated to protect the researcher, his or her research, and the university. Most conflicts of interest can be managed with appropriate oversight or other controls in place.

Here are a few examples of research-related COI issues from recent news:

• NutriRECS, a research consortium including professors from Texas A&M, published an article that disputed previous research on negative effects of red meat. It was later discovered that part of the consortium was generously supported by the Texas beef cattle industry and cattle ranchers.(View article)
• Four faculty at the University of Florida did not disclose affiliations with and funding from foreign entities. Three resigned and one was terminated. The Florida House of Representatives Select Committee on the Integrity of Research Institutions reviewed the findings. (View article)
• A University of Kansas professor was indicted on federal charges for not disclosing his dual-employment with Fuzhou University in China as a Changjian Scholar Distinguished Professor. (View article and indictment)
• A UT Austin professor reported that fracking, or the hydraulic fracturing technique used to release natural gas in shale, does not contaminate local groundwater. A nonprofit watchdog group discovered that Dr. Chip Groat did not report financial ties to the fracking industry, including more than $400,000 in payments in 2011 and over $1.5 million in the past five years. Dr. Groat sits on the board of directors of a major fracking company, which is currently drilling one of the shales examined in Dr. Groat’s study. (View article)

• Sponsored programs or technology licensing arrangements in which any of the involved investigators (or their spouse/domestic partner, dependent children and any other persons within their household) have employment or consulting arrangements and significant financial interests in the sponsor, or with subcontractors, vendors, or collaborators.
• Using university resources to conduct research or programs that are sponsored by an entity in which the faculty member/researcher or his/her spouse/domestic partner, dependent children and any other persons within their household has a significant financial interest.
• Hiring university students in consulting activities or a company in which the faculty member/researcher has financial interests. If the student’s thesis/dissertation research is supervised by the faculty member, the conflict of interest situation may not be manageable.
• Diverting research opportunities from the university to a consulting entity or business in which the faculty/researcher has a financial interest.
• While acting in the context of his/her university duties, making professional referrals to or purchasing materials or services from a business in which an academic staff member or their spouse/domestic partner, dependent children and any other persons within their household has a financial interest.
• Serving as president or CEO, or holding any other position that requires involvement in the day-to-day operations of a for-profit sponsor. Such a situation creates an unacceptable conflict of interest and/or commitment, which must be reduced in order to be manageable.
• Conducting clinical trials on a drug or device developed by the faculty member/researcher may be manageable if the research DOES NOT involve human research subjects.
• Equity (ownership) interest of the faculty member (or their spouse/domestic partner, dependent children and any other persons within their household) in a sponsor.
• Failure of the faculty member/researcher to fulfill university responsibilities (e.g., holding classes, advising students, conducting research, serving on departmental or university committees, supervising students in research lab), due to involvement in external activities.