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Includes outside compensated work or scholarly services performed by a university employee, but does not include income derived solely from passive investments. Provision of compensated outside services is recognized as a legitimate activity unless specifically prohibited by an employee's contract of employment. Compensated outside service is not considered appropriate when it interferes with the regular work of the university employee; involves unauthorized use of university facilities, personnel, or other resources; subjects other individuals or companies engaged in private practice to unfair competition; violates the general requirements of Nevada Revised Statues 281A.400 -281A.410; or involves a conflict of interest specified by NSHE or university policy.

Any outside activity or interest that may, or may appear to, adversely affect, compromise, or be incompatible with the obligations of an employee in the institution. Conflict of interest encompasses any situation in which an employee of the university uses, or is in a position to use, his or her influence and authority within the university to advance his or her own personal or financial interest, or the personal or financial interests of individuals in the employee's household; persons to whom the employee is related by blood, adoption or marriage within the third degree of consanguinity; or persons with whom the employee has substantial and continuing outside business relationships. The bias of such conflicts could conceivably inappropriately affect the goals of research, instructional, or administrative programs. The education of students, the methods of analysis and interpretation of research data, the hiring of staff, procurement of materials, and other administrative tasks at the University must be free of undue influence of outside interests. For the purposes of reporting COIs to federal funding agencies, the federal definition(s) supersedes the above definition and will be used to determine which COIs must be reported.

The institutional official(s) who have been given authority to review and manage all disclosures of significant financial interests. This includes determining whether any significant financial interests relate to federal funding; determining whether a financial conflict of interest exists; and, if so, developing and implementing a management plan that specifies actions that have been, and shall be, taken to manage such financial conflict of interest. At 51�ԹϺ��� the designated official is the Executive Vice President and Provost.

Any person who is employed full- or part-time by the University and includes but is not limited to faculty, staff, postdoctoral appointees, and students. Individuals or “investigators” (as defined by federal awards who are not paid but work as volunteers on funded projects) are also considered employees.

Compensated outside service that exceeds the limits set forth in NSHE’s policy on Compensated Outside Professional Service (Title 4, Chapter 3, Section 9). B-contract (9-month) faculty may engage in outside service during contractual time, but this activity must not occupy more than the equivalent of one day’s time per work week (20% of contractual time). Employees on 12-month contracts must take annual leave or furlough if providing outside service during the standard work week.

A significant financial interest that could directly and significantly affect the design, conduct, or reporting of funded research or affect the performance of duties for or by any 51�ԹϺ���/NSHE employee.

Anything of monetary value, including but not limited to, salary, or other payments for services (e.g., consulting fees or honoraria); equity interests (e.g., stocks, stock options or other ownership interests); and intellectual property rights (e.g., patents, copyrights and royalties from such rights).

The principal Investigator (PI), project director (PD), and/or any other person at the University who is responsible for the design, conduct, or reporting of a sponsored project which may include collaborators or consultants. It should be noted that the guidelines that apply to investigators also apply to individuals in the investigator’s household; persons to whom the investigator is related by blood, adoption, or marriage within the third degree of consanguinity as defined by NSHE Code Title 4, Chapter 3, Section 7 (Nepotism); or persons with whom the investigator has substantial and continuing outside business relationships. Hence, for the purposes of this policy’s disclosure requirement, the term “investigator” refers to the above individuals related to or working with the investigator.

(1) 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 University responsibilities:

1. With regard to any publicly traded entity, a significant financial interest exists if the value of any remuneration received from the entity in the twelve 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. For purposes of this definition, remuneration includes 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, as determined through reference to public prices or other reasonable measures of fair market value;
2. With regard to any non-publicly traded entity, a significant financial interest exists if the value of any remuneration received from the entity in the twelve months preceding the disclosure, when aggregated, exceeds $5,000, or when the Investigator (or the Investigator's spouse or dependent children) holds any equity interest (e.g., stock, stock option, or other ownership interest); or
3. Intellectual property rights and interests (e.g., patents, copyrights), upon receipt of income related to such rights and interests.

(2) Investigators also must disclose the occurrence of any reimbursed or sponsored travel (i.e., that is paid on behalf of the Investigator) 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 as defined at 20 U.S.C. 1001(a), an academic teaching hospital, a medical center, or a research institute that is affiliated with an institution of higher education. This disclosure will include, at a minimum, the purpose of the trip, the identity of the sponsor/organizer, the destination, and the duration. The University official(s) will determine if further information is needed, including a determination or disclosure of monetary value, in order to determine whether the travel constitutes an FCOI with the PHS-funded research.

(3) The term significant financial interest does not include the following types of financial interests: salary, royalties, or other remuneration paid by 51�ԹϺ��� to the Investigator if the Investigator is currently employed or otherwise appointed by 51�ԹϺ���, including intellectual property rights assigned to 51�ԹϺ��� 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 made in these vehicles. All significant financial interests must be evaluated by 51�ԹϺ��� to determine whether or not they pose a financial conflict of interest.

A project director (PD), principal Investigator (PI), and any other person identified as senior/key personnel by 51�ԹϺ��� in the grant application, progress report, or any other report submitted to the funding agency.

A research, training, service, or other type of project with identifiable objectives and/or deliverables for which external funding either is being requested or has been received.

The supervisor is the University official designated by the Executive Vice President and Provost to review conflict of interest and compensated outside services approvals/ disclosures for academic and administrative faculty in a given unit. For faculty in academic departments or schools, the supervisor is the department chair or school director, and these supervisors are expected to review conflict of interest/compensated outside services approvals/ disclosures for their faculty members directly.

For academic and administrative faculty in a college but not a department or school, the supervisor is the dean, who may delegate this authority to an associate dean in the college or school. For academic or administrative faculty in an area under the Provost outside a college, the supervisor is the relevant vice provost. For academic or administrative faculty in support divisions, this is the relevant vice president (or the General Counsel), and these supervisors may delegate this authority one reporting level down, to an associate vice president or comparably ranked official.

For all vice presidents, deans and vice provosts, the supervisor is the Executive Vice President and Provost (EVPP). For the EVPP, the supervisor is the President. For the President, as per NSHE Code Title 4, Chapter 3, Section 8, the supervisor is the Chancellor.

In all cases, the relevant dean or vice president is responsible, under NSHE Code 4.3.9, to maintain requests, approvals and disclosures as confidential documents and part of the personnel dossier.

An Investigator’s professional responsibilities on behalf of 51�ԹϺ���, and as defined by the University, including but not limited to, activities such as research, research consultation, teaching, professional practice, institutional committee memberships, and service on panels such as University Institutional Review Boards and University Data and Safety Monitoring Boards.