Update on Proposal Guideline Review & Financial Conflicts of Interest

Update on Proposal Guideline Review & Financial Conflicts of Interest

Background: UK’s Financial Conflicts of Interest (FCOI) policy requires that investigators on sponsored research proposals or awards annually disclose any personal financial interests in order to ensure that those interests do not compromise research objectivity. 

Many federal sponsors, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), require that awardee institutions have an FCOI policy that is compliant with the Public Health Service’s (PHS) regulations on Responsibility of Applicants for Promoting Objectivity in Research.  Sponsors may require UK to certify at the proposal stage that our policy is compliant with the Federal PHS Policy.  This certification is provided by the Office of Sponsored Projects Administration’s (OSPA) Director, Kim C. Carter, as the Authorized Signing Official. 

Pre-Submission Guideline Review: If you are preparing a proposal submission, please forward the proposal guidelines to your COM Grants Proposal Specialist (GPS) as soon as possible.  Per recent guidance from OSPA, your COM Grants Proposal Specialist (GPS) will now specifically review your guidelines for any sponsor requirements that exceed or are in conflict with UK’s FCOI policy.  In that event, your GPS can help coordinate with UK’s COI Administrator in OSPA to ensure your proposal’s compliance with both UK’s policy and sponsor requirements. 

More Information:

For more about UK’s Conflict of Interest program: http://www.research.uky.edu/ospa/coi.html.

To review UK’s FCOI Policy, please see Administrative Regulation 7:2: http://www.uky.edu/regs/files/ar/AR%207-2%20Final%202015-03-01.pdf.

To find your GPS, please see the COM Sponsored Research Administrative Services (SRAS) website at: https://research.med.uky.edu/sras-contact-information.