Financial Conflict of Interest
In order to ensure funding from US Federal agencies and other applicable funding source are free from conflicts of interest, institutions applying for and receiving funding from a grant, subgrant or agreement contract, must be in compliance with the Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) Regulation.
In order to comply with these regulations, the institution receiving funds must have a Designated Official to assess whether employees ("Investigators") with Significant Financial Interests (SFIs) related to the above identified projects have any FCOIs. This assessment is to be done prior to application submission.
In response to this regulation, the University of Alberta appointed a Designated Official and Conflict Review Officer who will serve as the University's Designated Official for FCOIs related to research as per the University of Alberta's Financial Conflict of Interest for National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other Applicable Research Funding Sources Reporting and Assessment Procedure. More granting agencies are requiring this type of commitment from the institution where grantees or sub-grantees are employed.
To assist our Investigators, this entire procedure can be performed online!
The required training can be done via eClass, and this takes about 60 minutes. Instructions, an overview of the course and SFI definitions are provided for your assistance when completing the training
The disclosure process is completed via Alberta Research Information Services (ARISE). Disclosure typically takes less than 10 minutes. Step-by-step TipSheets, videos, and training materials are available under Quick Links (right column of this page).
It is important that anyone involved in the design, conduct or analysis of the above mentioned projects be trained and disclosed. This includes graduate students, summer students, research technicians, study coordinators and research managers. Who is required to disclose is ultimately under the responsibility of the lead UofA Investigator to determine who falls under this description.
Any Investigators interested in applying for or participating in a project for the above mentioned funding agencies are urged to contact nih@ualberta.ca or your RSO contact prior to application submission to avoid application submission delays.