Thursday, January 11, 2007

DRAFT Policy on Conflict of Interest (GP 37) for review and comment

Please note that a new DRAFT policy on Conflict of Interest (GP 37) has been reviewed by the Vice Presidents and is now available for review at http://www.sfu.ca/policies/draft/.

GP 37 -- Conflict of Interest

The DRAFT Policy and its associated documents are intended to meet the requirements set out in Schedule 14 of the Tri-Council Agencies Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU states that maintaining public confidence in research, and in the agencies and institutions that fund and conduct research, demands a shared interest by all parties that research be protected from even the appearance of conflict of interest. To that end, all eligible institutions are required to develop and maintain a written policy on conflicts of interest (COI).

In addition to meeting the Tri-Council's requirements, the attached drafts reach beyond research-related activities to provide an updated institutional COI policy and related procedures able to cover non-research activities. When adopted, the new policy and procedures will replace the existing policy AD 11.18 (Conflict of Interest), which is directed primarily at purchasing practices, while reinforcing those elements in R 10.01 (External Research Grants and Contracts) and R 60.01 (Integrity in Research and Misconduct in Research) that speak to conflicts of interest.

Because the new Policy would make more general and formal the requirement to report real or potential conflicts of interest, the Policy is augmented by a draft Disclosure and Assessment Procedure, and by proposed forms for reporting such conflicts in research and non-research areas. The Research Funding Application Signature Sheet has been amended to accommodate this purpose for research-related disclosures.

Comments and questions concerning the draft Policy and its accompanying documents should be forwarded to kbell@sfu.ca by no later than Friday, January 29 2007.

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K.C. Bell
Director, Special Projects
Office of the President
Simon Fraser University