Office for Responsible Outside Interests

Below, please find a list of the potential points of disclosure. 

COC Form – Outside Activity

If your seminars meet the definition of Outside Commitment, you should submit a COC form in eDisclosure to get prior approval to engage in the Outside Activity.

Outside Commitments: (1) are professional and other activities that are related to a University Employee’s professional expertise, outside of their University duties and responsibilities; (2) are for the benefit of an external entity or individual and are not covered by a fully executed written agreement between the University and the external entity; and (3) require a time commitment. Outside Commitments include Outside Employment, independent contracts for consulting services, private consulting groups comprised of University Employees, volunteer/pro bono work, appointments at postsecondary educational institutions, and foreign components, as that term may be updated by the University’s Office for Responsible Outside Interests.

You can also use this decision tree to determine if the activity is an Outside Commitment: Outside Commitment Decision Tree.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Interests

If you do end up receiving a payment of any amount, an in-kind contribution or Other Support, it must be disclosed as a Foreign Interest.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Travel

PHS and Dept of Energy Investigators only: Must disclose any reimbursed or sponsored travel related to your institutional responsibilities, regardless of the amount, unless received from a Federal, state, or local government agency of the United States; a domestic Institution of Higher Education; or a domestic research institute that is affiliated with a domestic Institution of Higher Education.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Affiliations

As part of your eDisclosure submissions, you must disclose whether you have a foreign affiliation.

Below, please find a list of the potential points of disclosure. 

COC Form – Outside Activity

If any of your activities during your travel meet the definition of Outside Commitment, you should submit a COC form in eDisclosure to get prior approval to engage in the Outside Activity.

Outside Commitments: (1) are professional and other activities that are related to a University Employee’s professional expertise, outside of their University duties and responsibilities; (2) are for the benefit of an external entity or individual and are not covered by a fully executed written agreement between the University and the external entity; and (3) require a time commitment. Outside Commitments include Outside Employment, independent contracts for consulting services, private consulting groups comprised of University Employees, volunteer/pro bono work, appointments at postsecondary educational institutions, and foreign components, as that term may be updated by the University’s Office for Responsible Outside Interests.

You can also use this decision tree to determine if the activity is an Outside Commitment: Outside Commitment Decision Tree.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Interests

If you do end up receiving a payment of any amount, an in-kind contribution or Other Support, it must be disclosed as a Foreign Interest.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Travel

PHS and Dept of Energy Investigators only: Must disclose any reimbursed or sponsored travel related to your institutional responsibilities, regardless of the amount, unless received from a Federal, state, or local government agency of the United States; a domestic Institution of Higher Education; or a domestic research institute that is affiliated with a domestic Institution of Higher Education.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Affiliations

As part of your eDisclosure submissions, you must disclose whether you have a foreign affiliation.

Below, please find a list of the potential points of disclosure.

COC Form – Outside Activity

If your visits or seminars to Japanese universities meet the definition of Outside Commitment, you should submit a COC form in eDisclosure to get prior approval to engage in the Outside Activity.

Outside Commitments: (1) are professional and other activities that are related to a University Employee’s professional expertise, outside of their University duties and responsibilities; (2) are for the benefit of an external entity or individual and are not covered by a fully executed written agreement between the University and the external entity; and (3) require a time commitment. Outside Commitments include Outside Employment, independent contracts for consulting services, private consulting groups comprised of University Employees, volunteer/pro bono work, appointments at postsecondary educational institutions, and foreign components, as that term may be updated by the University’s Office for Responsible Outside Interests.

You can also use this decision tree to determine if the activity is an Outside Commitment: Outside Commitment Decision Tree.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Interests

If you do end up receiving a payment of any amount, an in-kind contribution or Other Support, it must be disclosed as a Foreign Interest.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Travel

PHS and Dept of Energy Investigators only: Must disclose any reimbursed or sponsored travel related to your institutional responsibilities, regardless of the amount, unless received from a Federal, state, or local government agency of the United States; a domestic Institution of Higher Education; or a domestic research institute that is affiliated with a domestic Institution of Higher Education.

COI Disclosure – Foreign Affiliations

As part of your eDisclosure submissions, you must disclose whether you have a foreign affiliation.

No, you do not have to disclose your parent’s Outside Interests. 

Federal regulations only require that you disclose you and your Family Member’s Outside Interests.  Family Member means one's spouse, domestic partner and/or dependent child. 

 All Investigators on each subaward will be required to complete the training and disclosure requirements. An Investigator means any person who shares the responsibility of Conducting Research. Conducting Research includes the design, development, testing, evaluation, conduct, reporting, review, and oversight of a program of scientific inquiry.  Each Investigator will need to submit an individual disclosure.

In case helpful, below is a brief overview specific to subrecipients but more Information for Non-UA Subcontractors, Consultants, and Collaborators can  be found on our website.

Subrecipients will be presented with two options. They will need to either (1) have an implemented and enforced federally-compliant conflict of interest policy and process and agree to be responsible for compliance under their policy and pursuant to the subcontract or consulting agreement including reporting requirements (our office reviews each subrecipient’s policy to determine it is compliant) or (2) comply with UArizona’s Conflicts of Interest & Commitment Policy (more details on the fees that apply can be accessed from link above).  Our office will be in direct contact with the subrecipients to share a complete overview of all the related requirements. Our office will also provide any assistance and guidance the subrecipient may need.

University Employees whose FTE is 0.50 or greater, are required to disclose any activity that meets the definition of an Outside Commitment or Outside Employment by submitting a disclosure of Outside Commitment or Employment (COC form) via eDisclosure. University approval is required prior to full-time University Employees (0.50 FTE or greater) entering into an Outside Commitment or Outside Employment (regardless of whether or not compensated for the activity).

• The Outside Commitment Decision Tree on our Disclosure Requirements webpage link may be of assistance to you in determining whether the activity meets the definition of an Outside Commitment. More information on Outside Activity can also be found on our website.

Additionally, as an Investigator, one of the requirements is disclosure of Outside Interests (Significant Financial, Significant Personal and Foreign Interests). You can find an overview of the Disclosure Requirements on our website including Disclosure Table resources which outlines the disclosure guidelines.

Consulting Agreements

Our website has information related to Consulting Agreements including a Consulting Agreement Addendum that the University developed as a resource that University employees can use as an addendum to any agreement that you sign or can be used as guidance on common issues that may arise in a consulting arrangement that may relate to your university employment. 

NIH describes Budgetary Overlap as: "Budgetary Overlap occurs when duplicate or equivalent budgetary items (e.g., equipment, salary) are requested in an application but are already provided by another source."

NIH describes Scientific Overlap as: "Scientific Overlap occurs when substantially similar research is proposed in more than one application or is submitted to two or more different funding sources for review and funding consideration; or a specific research objective and the experimental design for accomplishing that objective are the same or closely related in two or more applications or awards, regardless of funding source."

Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) means an Outside Interest is Related to, or can be perceived to be Related to, an individual’s institutional responsibilities.

FCOI determinations answer the question: Could it reasonably appear to someone outside of UA (e.g., front page of the newspaper) that a decision made in the conduct of research was influenced by your Outside Interest?  That influence could affect the design of the project, a decision to exclude data, a decision to delay publication of research results, a decision to overemphasize or underemphasize research results, etc. for the benefit of your Outside Interest.

Related to is a defined term that refers to the condition in which it may reasonably appear that decisions made by the Investigator in the performance of his/her institutional responsibilities could directly and significantly affect the value of his/her Significant Financial Interests or be in conflict with Significant Personal Interests or Foreign Interests.

Relatedness includes situations in which an Investigator’s Outside Interests would reasonably appear to affect, or to be affected by, the individual’s Research or other institutional responsibilities.

Relatedness is not a judgment on whether an Investigator would deliberately make choices in the Conduct of Research or the performance of their Institutional Responsibilities based on considerations related to their Outside Interest. Rather, “Relatedness” refers to the condition in which it may reasonably appear that choices made in the Conduct of Research or other performance of the individual’s institutional responsibilities could be directly and significantly influenced by the existence of an Outside Interest. 

What is Arizona’s COI Law?

In addition to federal conflict regulations, the University of Arizona must also comply with Arizona’s conflict of interest (COI) law.

A Substantial Interest is any nonspeculative pecuniary or proprietary interest, either direct or indirect, other than a remote interest. Remote interest is defined in A.R.S. § 38-502(10).

To mitigate the possibility that a personal influence might bear upon a University employee’s decision in his or her capacity as a public employee, a University employee who has, or whose Relative has, a "Substantial Interest" in

1. any contract, sale, purchase, or service by or to the Arizona Board of Regents (“ABOR”) or UArizona, or
2. any decision of ABOR or UArizona,

the University employee shall refrain from voting upon or otherwise participating in any manner as a University employee regarding such contract, sale, purchase, service or decision.

What do I need to do?

University employees must disclose all substantial interest in the official records of ABOR.  UArizona’s Conflicts of Interest & Commitment Policy complies with this law by requiring disclosure in eDisclosure.

What is considered when making Substantial Interest determinations?

1. Will the contract, sale, purchase, service, or decision have an impact, either positive or negative, on an interest of a University employee or their Relative?
2. Is the interest pecuniary (involves money) or proprietary (involves ownership)?
3. Is the interest a remote interest?

How is this state law applicable to Research and Startup Companies?

A University employee who has, or whose Relative has, a Substantial Interest in an entity cannot (1) participate as a University employee in contracting and purchasing decisions related to the entity or (2) subaward research to the entity. This includes the process leading up to the decision (e.g., making recommendations, giving advice, communicating with anyone involved in the purchasing process).

Who is a Relative?

Like we do with federal conflict regulations, the University relies on the state law to define Relative.  Thus, Relative has the meaning set forth in A.R.S. 38-503 (i.e., one's spouse or domestic partner, child grandchild, grandparent, sibling and their spouse or domestic partner, half-sibling and their spouse or domestic partner, and the parent, sibling or child of a spouse or domestic partner).

Even if the University employee does not have a substantial interest in a decision in which they are about to participate, if one of their Relatives has a substantial interest in the decision, they must disclose the interest and refrain from participating in the decision.

Noncompliance with this law cannot be justified by stating you are not unaware of your Relative’s interest. Public officers and employees have an affirmative obligation to become aware of any interests their relatives may have that may create a Substantial Interest.

Who is the Conflict Official for Arizona’s COI law?

While Arizona’s COI law is codified in the Conflicts of Interest & Commitment Policy and Substantial Interest disclosures are made through eDisclosure, Ted Nasser, Chief Procurement Officer, is the Conflict Official for Substantial Interests.

What if I have a question about Substantial Interests?

Please contact the Office for Responsible Outside Interests at coi@arizona.edu for questions related to Substantial Interests.  This law is broadly construed in favor of the public and substantial civil and criminal penalties are provided for failure to comply with the statutory requirements.  It is imperative that your questions are answered.

“Remote interest” means:

1. That of a nonsalaried officer of a nonprofit corporation.
2. That of a landlord or tenant of the contracting party.
3. That of an attorney of a contracting party.
4. That of a member of a nonprofit cooperative marketing association.
5. The ownership of less than three percent of the shares of a corporation for profit, provided the total annual income from dividends, including the value of stock dividends, from the corporation does not exceed five percent of the total annual income of such officer or employee and any other payments made to him by the corporation do not exceed five percent of his total annual income.
6. That of a public officer or employee in being reimbursed for his actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of official duty.
7. That of a recipient of public services generally provided by the incorporated city or town, political subdivision or state department, commission, agency, body or board of which he is a public officer or employee, on the same terms and conditions as if he were not an officer or employee.
8. That of a public school board member when the relative involved is not a dependent, as defined in section 43-1001, or a spouse.
9. That of a public officer or employee, or that of a relative of a public officer or employee, unless the contract or decision involved would confer a direct economic benefit or detriment on the officer, the employee or his relative, of any of the following:
   1. Another political subdivision.
   2. A public agency of another political subdivision.
   3. A public agency except if it is the same governmental entity.
10. That of a member of a trade, business, occupation, profession or class of persons consisting of at least ten members which is no greater than the interest of the other members of that trade, business, occupation, profession or class of persons.
11. That of a relative who is an employee of any business entity or governmental entity that employs at least twenty-five employees within this state and who, in the capacity as an employee, does not assert control or decision-making authority over the entity's management or budget decisions.

The ownership of any publicly traded investments that are held in an account or fund, including a mutual fund, that is managed by one or more qualified investment professionals who are not employed or controlled by the officer or employee and that the officer or employee owns shares or interest together with other investors.