Disclosure and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s )

Conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment have the potential to impact the integrity and reputation of the University. Such conflicts may also be violations of state or federal regulations. The COI/C Disclosure Form is the mechanism for the University to collect information and review such information to examine potential conflicts of interests or conflicts of commitments.  Application of established professional norms and ethical principles through formal procedures, as the COI/C Disclosure Form, helps to maintain the public trust in the University and its personnel, and confidence in the research the University provides to funding entities including the U.S. federal government.

All University personnel must disclose a conflict. Full-time faculty, full-time non-classified/professional employees, visiting scholars on the University payroll, graduate research assistants on the University payroll, compensated participants in activities associated with Sponsored Funding and any individual designated for mandatory annual disclosure by a Unit Authority, OSP, or the COI/C Office must complete an annual disclosure form.

COI/C Disclosure Forms must be submitted on an annual basis (by October 1st ). The University will make efforts to provide a courtesy notice to individuals approximately thirty (30) days prior to their annual disclosure date. However, the failure to provide such notice or the failure of an individual to receive such notice does not relieve an individual of the obligation to make a timely annual disclosure.

University personnel must also disclose on an ad hoc basis throughout the calendar year if new conflicts or potential conflicts arise. Within thirty (30) days of any qualifying event (e.g. changes in outside professional activities, new financial relationships related to their institutional responsibilities, sponsored projects, research or technology transfer, working with persons from foreign countries or foreign travel) you should access your InfoEd account and update your COI/C Disclosure Form.

Professional activities carried out for an external entity that are not part of an employee’s University institutional responsibilities but are within their area of expertise. This could include: management of companies, officer and board of directors’ activities, professional societies, consulting, speaking engagements, advising for an outside entity, acting as an expert witness. These activities, whether or not compensation is received, should be disclosed.

Specific responsibilities or particular professional activities performed on behalf of the University that are a basis of the individual’s job performance.

•  For faculty, this includes activities such as research, research consultation, outreach, administrative duties, teaching, professional practice, or institutional committee memberships.
•  For non-faculty, this includes the particular job duties and responsibilities as found in their job description.

Yes.  A conflict of commitment can occur when the pursuit of outside professional activities involves an excessive investment of time causing the employee to not meet their job requirements due to the additional and external commitments. For faculty, outside professional activities should be limited to no more than 20% of the contracted time of the individual.

It depends. Are your University responsibilities related to nursing homes or elder care in general? For example, do you do research on aging? If so, then yes, this is related to your institutional responsibilities and needs to be disclosed on the disclosure in the Outside Professional Activities & Conflicts of Commitment section of the COI/C Disclosure Form. If your University responsibilities are unrelated to nursing homes or elder care, then you do not need to disclose this.

Yes. Board membership should be disclosed on the COI/C Disclosure Form under Outside Professional  Activities & Conflicts of Commitment. Conflicts of interest and/or commitment may arise in situations where an individual’s personal, financial, or other interests could influence, or appear to influence, the conduct of University research activities.

Yes. A management position with an outside company that also interacts with your area of expertise and institutional responsibilities needs to be disclosed.

Yes. Expert legal testimony is disclosed on the COI/C Disclosure Form under Outside Professional  Activities & Conflicts of Commitment.

No. If your involvement in litigation or as a witness in litigation is not related to your institutional responsibilities then you are not required to disclose.

It depends. If you are teaching courses at the Community College that are related to your area of expertise and institutional responsibilities with the University then you would need to disclose. However, if you are a faculty member of the Chemistry Department and have a hobby of teaching Spanish at the Community College, then you would not need to disclose.

University personnel may make only incidental use (isolated, de minimis personal use) of University resources for purposes of an outside activity. Using such resources as facilities, personnel, students, information technology (which includes University emails), equipment, and information should be authorized by the appropriate University official. In certain situations a facilities agreement or property use agreement may be permitted by the University.

An outside entity can include a for-profit or not-for-profit organization, association, corporation, partnership, joint venture, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, or other entity or business association, including all wholly owned subsidiaries, majority-owned subsidiaries, parent companies, or affiliates of those entities or business associations. Also, an outside entity can include a U.S. state or any political subdivision thereof, including all boards, commissions, agencies, institutions, authorities, or bodies politic and corporate of the state, created by or in accordance with state law or regulations. Similarly, an outside entity can include foreign or U.S. Government boards, commissions, agencies, institutions, authorities, or bodies politic.

Anything more than incidental use of University information and technology services or University equipment is prohibited. Use of a University computer for private consulting may also create privacy and confidentiality concerns as the information on your email may be part of the public record.

Yes, this would be a conflict of interest. University resources include information which is not in the public domain. Showing a nonpublic/privileged unpublished document to an unauthorized party (your brother and ABC) would be inappropriate.

Yes. Consulting must be disclosed in the COI/C Disclosure Form to determine if any potential conflict exists between your outside business and the University.  Disclosure should occur before engaging in any consulting activity.

Yes. Your response to the questionnaire will serve as documentation that you do not have any financial interests.

Yes. University employees with management roles at or fiduciary duties to an external entity should not be involved in any negotiations (purchasing, p-card, research contracts, licensing contracts) between the outside company and the University, either in their University role or as a representative of the external entity. Any interaction between the University and the outside company must be processed through the appropriate Unit Authority and reviewed by the COI/C Office.

Yes. Consulting must be disclosed in writing in the COI/C Disclosure Form to determine if any potential conflict exists between your outside business and the University. Conflicts may arise in situations where an individual’s personal, financial, or other interests could influence, or appear to influence, the conduct of their research activities and must therefore be disclosed. Further, for certain sponsored projects, the sponsoring agencies (PHS, DEA, NSF) have certain disclosure requirements

Yes. A conflict of interest exists when a University member receives revenue on intellectual property on which an individual is a (co-)creator or (co-)inventor, where the individual also has an affiliation with or a financial interest in a commercial entity that has licensed that intellectual property from the University.

“Significant Financial Interest” is defined by federal regulation as a financial interest consisting of one or more of the following interests of the Investigator (and those of the Investigator’s spouse and dependent children) that reasonably appears to be related to the Investigator’s institutional responsibilities: 1) the value of any remuneration received from the entity in the twelve (12) months preceding the disclosure and the value of any equity interest in the entity as of the date of disclosure, when aggregated, exceeds $5,000 ; 2) equity interest greater than 5%; and 3) intellectual property rights, (patents, copyrights, etc.). Remuneration can include salary and any payment for services not otherwise identified as salary (e.g., consulting fees, honoraria, paid authorship); equity interest includes any stock, stock option, or other ownership interest.

Yes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), impose special reporting requirements on sponsored funding from the various agencies controlled by PHS, including Small Business Innovation Research(SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. The special reporting requirements apply to researchers who are Investigators participating in PHS funded research and relate to conflict of interest.

The PHS COI regulation is federal law. As a recipient of federal research monies, the University must comply with these regulations including:

• Maintain an up-to-date, written, enforced policy on financial conflicts of interest that complies with this subpart, and make such policy available via a publicly accessible Web site.
• Inform each Investigator of the Institution’s policy on financial conflicts of interest and  the Investigator’s responsibilities regarding disclosure of Significant Financial Interests.
• Investigators must complete Federal conflict of interest training prior to engaging in new or continuing awards funded by PHS. This needs to be confirmed in your COI/C Disclosure Form. You must also report any sponsored travel and any new Significant Financial Interest.

Investigators must also disclose the occurrence of any reimbursed or sponsored travel, related to their University responsibilities. However, this disclosure requirement does not apply to travel that is reimbursed or sponsored by a Federal, state, or local government agency, an Institution of higher education, an academic teaching hospital, a medical center, or a research institute that is affiliated with an Institution of higher education.

No. This disclosure process is used to report information to the University. It does not satisfy any requirement to disclose information about your outside relationships and activities in grant, contract or other funding applications to federal or other funding agencies. You must still disclose any required information on all funding applications as required by the sponsoring agency.

No. Your salary or other remuneration paid to you by the University is not considered a Significant Financial Interest.

Salary, royalties, or other remuneration paid by the University to the Investigator if the Investigator is currently employed or otherwise appointed by the University, including intellectual property rights assigned to the University and agreements to share in royalties related to such rights; income from investment vehicles, such as mutual funds and retirement accounts, as long as the Investigator does not directly control the investment decisions; income from seminars, lectures, or teaching engagements sponsored by a federal, state, or local government agency, an Institution of higher education, an academic teaching hospital, a medical center, or a research institute that is affiliated with an Institution of higher education.

No. Stock in mutual funds do not need to be disclosed because they are excluded from the definition of Significant Financial Interest. In general, any investment vehicle where you have no control over the acquisition of individual stock, are excluded from disclosure.

It depends. Under federal regulations, receipt of income related to intellectual property rights, such as patents and copyrights, are considered Significant Financial Interests and must be disclosed. However, the definition of Significant Financial Interest does not include salary, royalties, or other remuneration paid by the University to the Investigator, if the Investigator is currently employed or otherwise appointed by the University, including intellectual property rights assigned to the University and agreements to share in royalties related to such rights.

A Family Member is any person with whom an individual has a familial or guardianship relationship, including a legal dependent, parent, parent-in-law, guardian, step-parent, child, step-child, son-in-law or daughter-in-law, brother, sister, spouse, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, first-cousin, grandparent, grandchild, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, or any persons living in the same household.

The following are some but not all possible situations where a familial relationship would cause a conflict:

• Directly supervising or evaluating a Family Member.
• Hiring or directing another individual to hire a Family Member.
• Setting salary for a Family Member and/or participating in discussions related to their salary or promotion.
• Authorizing a University purchase from a Family Member.
• Authorizing a consulting contract for a Family Member.
• Authorizing University-funded travel for a Family Member except as otherwise permitted by University policy.

If you have questions regarding familial relationship and conflict of interest, please contact the COI/C Office coi@boisestate.edu

Yes. If the financial interest of the Investigator or those of the Investigator’s spouse or dependent children reasonably appear to be related to the Investigator’s institutional responsibilities and when aggregated, exceeds $5,000, or when the Investigator (or the Investigator’s spouse or dependent children) holds any equity, the interest is a Significant Financial Interest and must be disclosed.

It depends. Students or supervised personnel may benefit from part time involvement in outside professional activities of faculty members but such outside professional activity must also be free of conflicts of interest or commitment that could bias or have the appearance of biasing their judgment about the best interests of the student or supervised personnel.

A faculty member or Investigator’s financial relationship with a business entity may not place restrictions on the activities of students or trainees. Further, the faculty member or Investigator should refrain from engaging in any business or financial relationship with any student or supervised personnel where they teach, advise, evaluate, or participate in a thesis and/or dissertation committees of the student or supervised personnel thereby undermining the real or perceived integrity of the academic environment.

All such outside professional activities involving students or supervised personnel must be disclosed.

No. You would not be permitted to participate in the interview or selection of a Family Member. Both state law and University rules prohibit the preferential treatment or perceived preferential treatment of an individual based on a familial relationship. As to the issue of supervision you would need to contact Human Resources for their review and approval of the chain of supervision.

For conflict of interest and commitment purposes the perception of or potential for a conflict of interest should be avoided. For further guidance on this question, please contact the COI/C Office coi@boisestate.edu

Yes. When selecting textbooks or any other materials for courses, it is imperative that departments and faculty members avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest in assigning faculty-created academic materials in the faculty member’s or department’s classes. While not expressly prohibited, the assignment of faculty-created academic materials should ensure that the faculty member does not profit from this arrangement. For further guidance, please contact the COI/C Office at coi@boisestate.edu

It depends. Except as authorized by an appropriate University official, university personnel may make only incidental use of University resources for purposes unrelated to the education, research, scholarship, and public service missions of the University. University personnel must also have proper prior authorization to use the University’s name, marks, logos, official stationery, or any University building name, department name, or any University location or address, when participating in personal or professional activities that are outside of the institutional responsibilities of the individual.

If your use of University email was de minimis and was not promoting your son’s business by using the University logo then it may be considered incidental (sending a couple of emails to friends telling them about your son’s business versus using a mailing list with the University logo on the email).

Generally, you should not recommend a Family Members’ services to any individual that you directly supervise because the business relationship they will have with your Family Member(s) could create a conflict of interest and could affect your work relationship with your supervisee.

It depends. Your brother might not know which of his clients work at the University. To the extent that he does know, are any of them under your direct supervision? If yes, you should disclose it.

If none of his clients are under your supervision, then it does not need to be disclosed. If you are made aware of anyone under your supervision hiring your brother as their plumber, update your COI/C Disclosure Form as soon as you know.

Yes. Renting housing to a supervisee or a student over whom a supervisor or a faculty member has direct academic or employment influence ​is an activity that is generally presumed to be a conflict of interest. The University is committed to protecting the educational interests of students and maintaining an open environment free from undue influence for both students and supervised employees.

No, you do not need to disclose personal gifts, such as a birthday present, received from a Family Member or friend who also happens to be a donor; current, prospective or former student or parent. If the gift, award, or prize is not dependent in any fashion on the fact that the recipient is also employed by the University, the gift, award, or prize will be treated as a non-employee transaction.

It depends. Depending on the value of the tickets and the circumstances of the event, you might be able to attend. However, approval to accept a gift with a value exceeding $50 (e.g.,event tickets, travel, lodging, entertainment, meals, payment of an expense, charitable contributions, donations) from any person or entity doing business or seeking to do business with the University must be received from the COI/C Office at coi@boisestate.edu prior to acceptance of the gift. Gifts of cash or cash equivalents in any amount may not be accepted by University personnel or their Family Members.

It depends, it is inappropriate unless the value of the meals (on an annual aggregate basis) is less than $50.00. This invitation could be interpreted as the vendor trying to influence you. You can accept the invitation and pay for your own meal.

It depends. Approval to accept a gift with a value exceeding $50 (e.g., travel, lodging, entertainment, meals, payment of an expense, charitable contributions, donations) from any person or entity doing business or seeking to do business with the University must be received from the COI/C Office prior to acceptance of the gift.

However, the phrase “any person or entity doing business or seeking to do business” does not include federal, state or local governmental entities or nonprofit professional membership organizations. If you are unsure whether your non-profit qualifies, contact the COI/C Office for a review at coi@boisestate.edu

Idaho state law prohibits the acceptance of gifts by public servants with the exception of certain circumstances including, “trivial benefits not to exceed a value of fifty dollars ($50.00) incidental to personal, professional or business contacts and involving no substantial risk of undermining official impartiality.”

Although your motive may be to benefit your T.A., the relationship between you as an instructor and your T.A., a student you evaluate, could be influenced by unforeseen circumstances. The University is committed to protecting the educational interests of students and maintaining an open environment free from undue influence.  For further guidance, please contact the COI/C Office coi@boisestate.edu

Sponsored travel is when an outside entity pays for an individual’s travel expenses in full or in part. This can include research travel, travel to a customer site, travel to professional societies or travel to foreign institutions of higher education.The sponsor pays the institution directly for the traveler’s expenses, instead of paying the traveler directly. Travelers should check the terms and conditions of any grants they receive to understand what the sponsor requires for international travel.

Yes. You should disclose sponsored travel that is related to your institutional responsibilities in the COI/C Disclosure Form. Further, some federal agencies require Investigators who receive federal funding for their research to disclose certain information about any sponsored or reimbursed travel that meets certain criteria.

Exception to the travel disclosures is sponsored domestic travel paid by the University, a federal, state or local government agency, an Institution of Higher Education, an academic teaching hospital, a medical center, or a research institute that is affiliated with an Institution of Higher Education.

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 identifies China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran as countries of concern for foreign interactions. For example, you should disclose any international travel to a foreign country of concern.

Substantive interactions would include:

• Entering into a contract, whether written or unwritten, with an entity (e.g., company, partnership, business association, government agency, university) that is owned, funded, or operated by a government of a foreign country of concern.
• Receiving cash compensation, in-kind compensation, office/laboratory space, technical equipment, scientific supplies, research funding, promised future compensation, complimentary foreign travel, things of non de minimis value, honorific titles, honoraria, awards, grants, scholarships, appointments, career advancement opportunities, or other types of remuneration or consideration provided by an entity or resident of a foreign country of concern.
• Transferring intellectual property, materials, data products, or other nonpublic information owned by a United
  States entity or developed with a U.S. Government research and development award to the government of a foreign country of concern or an entity based in, funded by, or affiliated with a foreign country of concern regardless of whether that government or entity provided support for the development of the intellectual property, materials, or data products.
• Being requested to recruit trainees or researchers to enroll in a program, position, or activity with an entity affiliated with a foreign country of concern.
• Establishing a laboratory or company, accepting a faculty position, or undertaking any other employment or appointment in a foreign country of concern or with an entity based in, funded by, or affiliated with a foreign country of concern.
• Establishing, with an entity of a foreign country of concern, a contract or agreement without a termination clause that allows you to terminate the contract or agreement without adverse recourse.
• Through funding or effort related to the interaction, being limited in the capacity to carry out a research and
  development award or required to engage in work that would result in substantial overlap or duplication with a U.S. Government research and development award.
• Applying for funding from an entity of a foreign country of concern.
• Being requested to omit acknowledgment of your affiliation with Boise State University or any other U.S. entity.
• Being requested to not disclose your interaction with the resident of the foreign country of concern.
• Discussing, sharing, or being requested to discuss or share proprietary technology or software, unpublished data and methods, or intellectual property with an entity or resident of a foreign country of concern.
• Being incentivized to physically travel or relocate to a foreign country of concern.
• Discussing granular details of Boise State research, operations, finance, or security matters with former professors or colleagues at a university located in a foreign country of concern.
• Participating in an in-depth working group using nonpublic information related to your institutional responsibilities with parties located in a foreign country of concern.
• Owning, in whole or in part, a company located in a foreign country of concern.
• Performing one or more job-related tasks to benefit an entity of a foreign country of concern.
• Discussing granular details of your University research work with a Family Member who resides in a foreign country of concern.

Suspensions and debarments are administrative remedies used to prevent the Government from working with parties who are not “presently responsible” – i.e., those that have engaged in criminal or other improper conduct, or demonstrated serious poor performance of such a compelling and serious nature that it would lead one to question their honesty, ethics, or competence. Federal agencies, exercising their inherent authority as consumers of goods and services, lessors, or awarding officials, use these remedies to exclude these parties from obtaining new Federal contracts and grants, this includes flow through sponsored funds.