Office for Responsible Outside Interests

 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. 

Foreign affiliations are defined as associations/relationships (e.g. conducting activity such as consulting engagements, research collaborations, appointments or titles, or teaching) with foreign institutions of higher education, foreign governments, foreign companies or foreign nationals.

Stock and equity valuation should be updated as follows:

Public Entity: Update at least annually, based on Annual Report or other public valuation

Non-Public Entity:

• If original value is $4,999 or less, update within 30 days of value reaching $5,000 or more

• If original value is $5,000 or more, update at least annually

See Also

• How do I disclose stock or equity?
• How do I value stock and equity?

The value of Equity is determined through reference to public prices or other reasonable measures of fair market value (e.g., assets - liabilities = value).

Stock in a public entity is valued based on Annual Reports and other public valuations.

Valuing stock in a private entity can be done various ways using methods such as valuation ratios, internal rates of return, comparative analysis and discounted cash flow analysis.

See Also

• How do I disclose stock or equity?
• When should I update the value of my stock or equity?

Stock and equity only need to be disclosed if they are an Investigator's Significant Financial Interest or a University Employees Substantial Interest.

A Significant Financial Interest includes:

• Any equity in a private company, regardless of value

• Equity valued at $5,000 or more in a public company

However, income from investment vehicles such as mutual funds and retirement accounts, as long as the Investigator does not directly control the investment decisions made by the investment managers within these funds or accounts, do not require disclosure.

A Substantial Interest includes:  The ownership of three percent or more of the shares of a corporation for profit, where the total annual income from dividends, including the value of stock dividends, from the corporation exceeds five percent of the total annual income of the employee.

Completing the Stock in External Entity Page in eDisclosure

On the Stock or Equity page in eDisclosure, there are two options for disclosing stock and equity:

1. "Do you own stock / partnership shares in this organization?" should be used to disclose (1) stocks and shares that you own in a public entity and (2) partnership agreements/shares.
2. "Do you own stock options or any other form of equity in this organization?" should be used to disclose (1) other ownership interests (e.g., equity in a private entity), (2) stock options, including Employee Stock Options ("ESOs"), and stock warrants.

Stock & Equity Definitions

• Equity is any stock or other ownership interest, or an entitlement to obtain any stock or ownership interests (e.g., stock options and warrants). The value of Equity is determined through reference to public prices or other reasonable measures of fair market value (e.g., assets - liabilities = value).
• “Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are SEC-registered investment companies that offer investors a way to pool their money in a fund that invests in stocks, bonds, or other assets. In return, investors receive an interest in the fund.  Most ETFs are professionally managed by SEC-registered investment advisers.  Some ETFs are passively-managed funds that seek to achieve the same return as a particular market index (often called index funds), while others are actively managed funds that buy or sell investments consistent with a stated investment objective.  ETFs are not mutual funds.” (https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/exchange-traded-fund-etf, last visited Oct. 27, 2022)
• “Options are contracts giving the purchaser the right – but not the obligation -- to buy or sell an underlying asset at a fixed price within a specific period of time. Stock options are traded on a number of exchanges.” (https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/options, last visited Oct. 27, 2022)
• Partnership Shares is a partnership arrangement between two or more people to oversee business operations and share its profits and liabilities. (See generally https://www.irs.gov/businesses/partnerships, last visited Oct. 27, 2022)
• “Stocks are a type of security that gives stockholders a share of ownership in a company. Stocks also are called ‘equities.’”  (https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/investment-products/stocks, last visited Oct. 27, 2022)
• A Stock Warrant “is a contract that gives the holder the right to purchase from the issuer a certain number of additional shares of common stock in the future at a certain price, often a premium to the stock price at the time the warrant is issued.” (https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/spac-warrants-5-tips, last visited Oct. 27, 2022)

See Also

• How do I value stock and equity?
• When should I update the value of my stock or equity?