A
Conflict of Interest occurs when an Employee
is involved in an activity, commitment, or
interest that could adversely affect, compromise,
or be incompatible with the obligations of
the Employee to the University. A Conflict
of Interest can involve conflicts of time
commitment, research integrity, financial
interest, use of university resources, or
discipline-specific interests.
1.
A conflict of time commitment occurs when
an Employee is involved in and committed
to unauthorized non-university activities
that interfere with obligations to students,
colleagues, and the primary mission of the
University.
2.
A conflict of research integrity occurs
when an Employee has an obligation to an
external entity that is in conflict with
the Employee’s obligations to the University,
or that restricts or impairs the Employee’s
ability to perform research or other activities
at the University. For more details, see
the document: Ethical Conduct in Research,
Scholarship and Creative Activity in the
UND Faculty Handbook.
3.
A conflict of financial interest occurs
when an Employee influences the University
in such a way as to lead to a significant
direct or indirect financial gain for the
Employee or any member of the Employee’s
close family (spouse and/or dependent children).
4.
A conflict in the use of university resources
occurs when an Employee uses university
resources in the unauthorized conduct of
non-University activities such that a reasonable
person could conclude that the activity
is undertaken by the Employee in an official
University capacity, or that the activity
has University sponsorship or authorization.
5.
A conflict of discipline-specific interests
occurs when the nature of the Employee’s
discipline, department or Employee obligations
could cause situations that, while not implicating
one of the conflicts listed above, could
cause risk to the University. The Executive
Head of the Unit is expected to provide
written guidance to Employees regarding
these situations and the Employees’ obligations
to disclose them.
Employees
have numerous interests, only some of which
could result in a Conflict of Interest. The
intent of this Conflict of Interest Policy
is to identify Employee interests that could
conflict with the interests of the University
and to mange those conflicts whenever possible.
The University is not interested in collecting
confidential or personal information that
is not necessary for the identification and
management of Conflicts of Interests. The
general rule is that each Employee must disclose
anything that could reasonably be interpreted
as creating a Conflict of Interest. Some interests
must be disclosed regardless of whether an
Employee believes that such interest could
reasonably be interpreted as creating a Conflict
of Interest. These interests are listed in
1- 6 below.
1:
If an Employee a) can influence or approve
purchase of goods or services worth more than
$10,000 per year in his/her university role,
or b) is responsible for the design, conduct,
or reporting of research supported by federal
agencies, then the Employee must disclose
any significant financial interest in a non-University
entity.
The
term significant financial interest means
anything of monetary value, including, but
not limited to: salary or other payments for
services (e.g., consulting fees, honoraria);
equity interests (e.g., stocks, stock options,
patents, copyrights, other ownership interests);
and non-University royalties from intellectual
property rights (e.g., patents, copyrights,
trade secrets, and trademarks).
The
term does not include:
i.
Employee income of up to $10,000 from service
performed for public or nonprofit entities;
ii.
an equity interest in any single entity
that when aggregated for the Employee and
the Employee’s spouse and/or dependent children
meets both of the following criteria: a)
does not exceed $10,000 in value as determined
through reference to public prices or other
reasonable measures of fair market value,
and b) does not represent more than a five
percent ownership interest in the entity;
iii.
salary, royalties or other payments made
to the Employee’s spouse and/or dependent
children, from entities that do not do business
with the University;
iv.
salary, royalties or other payments from
entities that do business with the University
that, when aggregated for the Employee and
the Employee’s spouse and/or dependent children
over the next twelve months, are not expected
to exceed $10,000.
2. An Employee who is a member of the faculty
must disclose outside, compensated or voluntary,
professional/commercial activities, including
consulting or management of an outside business,
if he/she spent more than 20% of his or her
total work effort on such activity during
the immediate past contract period or expects
to do so during the next contract period.
All other full time Employees must disclose
any outside, compensated or voluntary, professional/commercial
activities, including consulting for an outside
business, if he/she has or expects to spend
any effort on such activity during normal
work hours at the University.
3. An Employee must disclose the use of significant
University resources (including faculty, students,
support staff, facilities, equipment, or confidential
information) in carrying out any outside,
compensated or voluntary, professional/commercial
activities.
4. An Employee must disclose service as principal
or co-principal investigator for sponsored
projects submitted and managed through other
academic, federal, or commercial institutions,
excluding subcontracts awarded to the University
of North Dakota and/or multi-site training
or research projects.
5. An Employee must disclose service as a
manager of an outside business activity in
his/her professional field.
6. An Employee must disclose use of University
resources to create, discover, or reduce to
practice, patentable inventions which have
not been disclosed to the University.
