Conflict of Interest (COI)

A conflict of interest exists when a person’s outside or private interests affect – or appear to affect – their Institutional Responsibilities and judgment as a Wichita State employee

A conflict of time commitment may exist when an employee's external activities, performed with or without pay, involve a commitment of time that may compete, or appear to compete with the employee's obligations to the University.

“Institutional Responsibilities” involve a variety of scholarly and professional obligations carried out on behalf of the University. These may include, but are not limited to teaching, research, scholarship, professional practice and service, etc. These responsibilities may or may not be included in your official position description. So, an easy way to determine your Institutional Responsibilities is to ask yourself “what do I do for or on behalf of Wichita State University?” That long list that you come up with? Those are your Institutional Responsibilities that could present a conflict.

For purposes of conflict of interest, these interests are defined as “all holdings greater than $5,000 or more than 5% ownership.”

These activities are defined in Section G of WSU Policy 3.04 / Commitment of Time, Conflict of Interest, Consulting and Other Employment

Lobbying activities include, but are not limited to any written, oral, or electronic communication regarding any proposed or adopted federal legislation, rule, or executive order, or the administration of any federal program with any covered executive or legislative branch official. This includes the negotiation, award, or administration of any federal contract, grant, loan, permit, or license.

Reimbursed or sponsored travel is related to the investigator's Institutional Responsibilities.

A collaboration is basically anything: formal partnerships with international/domestic scholars, agreements to explore areas of common interest, student and faculty exchanges, joint publications, gifts from donors, contracts with vendors, etc. A collaboration can exist even if there is no money involved.

Wichita State University's Conflict of Interest Policy, as well as the Kansas Board of Regents Conflict of Interest Policy, require certain members of the Wichita State community to complete a COI disclosure annually. The COI disclosure form collects information related to significant financial interests, conflicts of time commitment, supervisory conflicts, gifts, and foreign influence.

The new annual COI cycle runs between April 1 and March 31. Annual reporting is conducted electronically via myWSU. In April, when the annual cycle begins, Wichita State employees will receive an email with instructions on submission. All disclosures will be due by April 30.

All WSU personnel participating in research or sponsored projects must have a current COI Disclosure on file prior to proposal submission and/or award acceptance.

Maybe. Per Wichita State and KBOR policy, employees must disclose and current or prospective situations that may raise questions of conflict of interest or time commitment as soon as situations become known. For example, if you complete your annual disclosure during the month of April and report no conflicts, but in October of that same year, you are engaging in outside consulting, you will need to update your COI disclosure. If nothing changes from the time you submit your COI disclosure until it expires, you do not need to submit any updates in the interim. You must update your COI Disclosure form within 30 days of a change.

The determination regarding whether or not you have conflicts is not a self-determination but is instead made by the institution. In many instances, the perception of conflict is a critical factor to consider. Therefore, the institution does not ask whether you have “a conflict,” but rather asks employees to provide a list of your financial and other outside interests and then evaluates these against University responsibilities (i.e., research, teaching, etc.) to determine if these interests create potential conflicts.

No. You are thinking of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission “Statement of Substantial Interest.” The SSI asks questions similar to Wichita State’s COI disclosure, but they are not the same disclosure. (And before you ask – yes, we’ve checked. One cannot be substituted for the other).

No. WSU does not need the financial information of any external entity. You are simply required to fill out the questions as it relates to your (or your spouse, domestic partner, dependent child(ren), household member, or associated entity) financial or managerial interest.

Generally speaking, on the annual disclosure form, you will be asked to report financial and managerial interests; outside employment/collaboration; intellectual property; governmental ethics; sponsored or reimbursed travel; supervising relatives; and foreign collaboration. Please read the questions carefully. Reading the questions carefully and, if necessary, clicking on any hyperlinks provided, should give you enough guidance on how to answer the question and what or how much information to provide. See COI: What To Disclose for helpful examples

Yes. Certain activities are exempt and do not need to be reported on the COI disclosure. See “Conflict of Interest: What Not to Disclose”

Yes. The interests of a spouse or dependent are reportable if they meet the reporting criteria and threshold. That is, if they are related to your Institutional Responsibilities (not your spouse’s or dependent’s Institutional Responsibilities, in the event they work for Wichita State).

You may disclose this in the last section of the Disclosure form under “other.” When in doubt, you are encouraged to disclose.

All COI disclosure are reviewed by staff in the Office of Research Compliance. The University is also in the process of creating a Conflict of Interest Review Board. COI disclosures with potential conflicts are referred to these two units for review. We will keep you up to date on the Review Board.

The Office of Research Compliance, in conjunction with the COI Review Board, carefully review all COI disclosures to determine whether an interest could create a conflict of interest. When reviewing disclosures, they will consider a number of factors including, but not limited to the magnitude of the financial interest, the degree of overlap between the external interest and Institutional Responsibilities, and whether the external interest could affect University research or educational activity. They also take into consideration perception of the external interest in relation to Institutional Responsibilities.

In general, a conflict of interest exists when an outside interest could compromise, or has the appearance of compromising, the professional judgment of an employee when designing, conducting, or reporting research, when teaching, and when carrying out general University duties and responsibilities. The existence of a conflict of interest does not imply any wrongdoing. Conflicts of interest are not in and of themselves unethical or impermissible. Indeed, they are often unavoidable, and in many cases can be appropriately managed or reduced to an acceptable level. However, employees should be cognizant of the fact that any outside activity, interest, or interaction with an outside entity has the potential to create conflicts, whether real or perceived. Recognition of potential conflicts, and sensitivity to how personal, financial, and other relationships can be perceived by others, are critical parts of managing conflicts.

Not necessarily. Having a conflict of interest does not automatically prohibit you from participating in external activities. In most instances, a conflict of interest can be appropriately managed so that you can, for example, continue to participate in a research activity while keeping your financial or outside interest. In some rare instances the conflict may be such that it cannot be appropriately managed. In general, your outside activities and interests should not prevent you from carrying out your research activities, teaching, and other Institutional Responsibilities.

In many instances, a conflict of interest can be resolved by simple disclosure. In other instances, the conflict may require a management plan to reduce, manage, or eliminate any conflict. If a management plan is required, the Office of Research Compliance will develop a management plan in cooperation with the employee to address the conflict.

Federal regulations require certain individuals to “disclose the occurrence of any reimbursed or sponsored travel related to their institutional responsibilities . . .” See 42 CFR 50.603.

Sponsored or reimbursed travel that should be disclosed includes but is not limited to the following:

• Reimbursed or sponsored travel related to Institutional responsibilities (including the purpose of trip, sponsor/organizer, destination, duration). Exceptions for travel are listed in the next section.
• Travel that is reimbursed or paid directly for consulting.
• Travel that is reimbursed or paid directly by a for-profit or non-profit organization for a conference, or to participate in a meeting.
• Travel that is reimbursed or paid directly when the investigator has a financial interest in that entity

The types of sponsored travel that do not need to be disclosed include:

• Travel that is funded by a sponsored award to Wichita State;
• Travel that is reimbursed to you through Wichita State;
• Travel that is reimbursed or paid directly by a federal, state, or local government agency;
• Travel that is reimbursed or paid directly by an institution of higher education as defined at 20 U.S.C. 1001(a);
• Travel that is reimbursed or paid directly by an academic teaching hospital, a medical center, or a research institute that is affiliated with an institution of higher education

To address undue foreign influence in NASA-supported research, NASA has developed a conflict of interest (COI) and conflict of commitment (COC) disclosure policy as an associated term and condition applicable to entities implementing NASA financial assistance awards ( i.e., grants or cooperative agreements).

Significant Financial Interest: The term “significant financial interest” means anything of monetary value, including, but not limited to, salary and any payment for services not otherwise identified as salary (e.g., consulting fees or honoraria), equity interest (e.g., stock, stock options, private equity, or other ownership interests), venture or other capital financing, and intellectual property rights (e.g., patents, copyrights, and royalties from such rights). The term does not include the following: (a)  Salaries, royalties, or other remuneration paid by the proposing institution to the investigator if the investigator is currently employed or otherwise appointed by the institution; (b) Any ownership interests in the proposing institution if the institution is a commercial or for-profit organization; (c) Income from investment vehicles, such as mutual funds and retirement accounts, as long as the investigator does not directly control the investment decisions made in these vehicles; (d) Income from seminars, lectures, or teaching engagements sponsored by a public or nonprofit entity; (e) Income from service on advisory committees or review panels for a public or nonprofit entity; (f) An equity interest that, when aggregated for the investigator and the investigator’s spouse and dependent children, meets both of the following tests: (1) does not exceed $10,000 in value as determined through reference to public prices or other reasonable measures of fair market value and (2) does not represent more than a 5 percent ownership interest in any single entity; or (g) Salaries, royalties, or other payments that, when aggregated for the investigator and the investigator’s spouse and dependent children, are not expected to exceed $10,000 during the prior twelve-month period. 

Institutional Responsibility: As a recipient of NASA funding, WSU shall comply with the conflict of interest policy and notification requirements in section 3.3,  Conflicts of Interest Policy, of the NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Manual (GCAM), as amended by Grant Information Circular 23-07, Conflict of Interest Policy.

Researcher Responsibility: Investigators who are planning to participate in NASA-funded research must disclose to the institution’s designated official(s) the investigator’s domestic and foreign significant financial interests no later than the time of application for NASA-funded research. Investigators must also update disclosures during the award’s period of performance, either on an annual basis, or as new reportable significant financial interests are obtained.  Prior to an institution’s expenditure of any funds under a NASA-funded research award, the designated official(s) shall review investigators’ disclosures of significant financial interests, determine whether a COI exists, and, if so, determine what conditions or restrictions, if any, should be imposed by the institution to manage, reduce, or eliminate such COI. All such significant financial interests must be disclosed and managed pursuant to WSU’s Conflict of Time, Conflicts of Interest, Consulting and Other Employment policy.

External Resources:

• NASA: Grant and Cooperative Agreement Manual (GCAM)
• NASA Grant Information Circular: 23-07
• NASA Notice: 23-091 – Conflicts of Interest Policy for Recipients of NASA Financial Assistance Awards