Conflict of Interest - Important Points
All personnel at WHOI -- including scientific and technical staff, administrative staff and all other employees, post-doctoral fellows/ investigators/ scholars, and anyone with a WHOI appointment including visitors, guests, Emeriti, and adjuncts. Only MIT-WHOI JP students; WHOI Guest Students; and non-employees with a WHOI appointment who have received less than $5,000 from WHOI in the past year (e.g., MIT faculty with a WHOI faculty appointment, Guest Investigators, and Visiting Scholars) are excepted from this policy. Additionally, anyone who is on a proposal must file a disclosure.
Any real or apparent Conflicts of Interest (COI).
A COI occurs when there is a divergence between an Individual’s private interests and professional obligations to WHOI such that an independent observer might reasonably question whether the Individual's actions or decisions are determined by considerations of personal financial gain. COIs can be any outside activity, paid or unpaid, which may benefit you or a close relative (spouse, domestic partner, child, stepchild, parent or sibling) that relates to WHOI, or that relates to your work at WHOI.
- Financial (ownership in entities involved/effected in projects, hiring Independent Contracts that are family members).
- Science (receiving funding/or doing consulting work with industry on research related to core research of a PI).
- Mission (funding from organizations in conflict with our mission).
- Reputational (greenwashing)
- You or a close relative own, control, or in a position of management at an organization that could do or does business with WHOI
- You or a close relative are on the board at an organization that does business with WHOI, or is in the same field as any of the work you do for WHOI
- You or a close relative have a consulting agreement with a company that does business with WHOI, or that is in the same field as any of the work you do for WHOI
- You have applied for or accepted any industry-sponsored research
- Take the COI Training online, then
- fill out the Conflict Disclosure Form. Do not rely on past Conflict Disclosure Forms when filing when filling out this year’s form.
No. Disclosure is the first step, and then Department Chairs will review and work with ACECS to determine any next steps. Keep in mind that, in addition to the Conflict Disclosure Form to WHOI, you many need to disclose your potential COI to third parties during presentations, in publications, in grant or contract proposal process, or other venues. WHOI is an institution of public trust; Individuals must respect that status and conduct their affairs in ways that will not compromise the integrity of the Institution or that trust.