For Departments
Management of Conflict of Interests
For Individuals
COI Management Plan Template
Employees Forming Companies
Subsidiary Companies and Joint Venture Directors
Activities that might give rise to conflicts of interests
If you have an interest (be it financial or personal) in a spinout, start-up or other external venture with a connection to your academic work, you are required to take certain steps to manage your conflicts of interests (see Appendix A of the Policy).
If you have a financial interest in the licensee (or proposed licensee) of University intellectual property you should disclose this, and step back from the negotiations, which should be managed by the IP Rights Management Team and Oxford University Innovation.
If you are involved in the procurement of goods and services, you should not take part in any purchasing decision where you have a personal relationship with, or another connection to, one of the other parties involved.
If you are involved in complex commercial transactions and arrangements (such as a research or commercialisation venture or the development of a capital project) you should be aware of your different interests and activities, and be able to distinguish between the responsibilities that come with each of these. In addition to ensuring that the relevant people in the department, division and support services are kept up-to-date, due diligence needs to be undertaken before setting up agreements or other collaborations.
Some of the information in the guidance for subsidiary directors (Word document) may be helpful.
All conflicts should be declared when applying for grants, negotiating contracts, submitting manuscripts for publication etc. You also need to ensure that you comply with the requirements of funding bodies.
If you hold any outside appointments you will need to avoid the conflicts of interest that can arise if these appointments compete with your University role. Approval needs to be sought before taking on an outside appointment.
If you are involved in admissions, recruitment or contract negotiation you should neither deal with, nor make decisions about, applicants or other parties in negotiations that are known to you.
Guidance on admissions and recruitment.
