Conflicts of commitment (COC)

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."

“Significant Use of University Resources” includes but is not limited to: use of research funding; use of funding allocated for asynchronous or distance learning programs; use of telecommunication and data services beyond ordinary use; use of university computing resources; use of instructional design or media production services; access to and use of research equipment and facilities or production facilities; use of University Assets* such as paid employee time, proprietary information, intellectual property (such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights), logos, land and buildings.

The use of library resources, personal workstations, or personal computers are not typically construed as Significant Use of Board or University Resources.

*University Assets is fully defined in the University's Misuse of Assets Policy.

At the time of proposal submission to a federal funding agency, Investigators must have an up-to-date COI certification.  That means each Investigator has:

1.    Submitted either an Annual Disclosure Certification or a Research Certification in the last 364 days, and
2.    Does not have any changes to an existing Outside Interest or new Outside Interest.
 

Conflict of interest (COI) and conflict of commitment (COC) reviews are separate because COI relates to bias in decisions and COC relates to a University employee's time & effort for UArizona, UArizona resources and UArizona Assets.

Sponsors & funders have identified the following concerns: 

1.    conflicts of interest
2.    shadow labs
3.    loss of Intellectual Property
4.    conflicts of commitment, including theft of time, resources and assets