FAQs

All external professional agreements, including scientific advisory boards, require prior approval. First, please discuss with your Chair, Division Chief, or Institute/Center Director. Provided that they approve, please email a copy of the agreement, scope of work, additional details on proposed time commitment and compensation, and whether you are involved with sponsored research from this company to Joni Prasad (jprasad@som.umaryland.edu). Please allow a minimum of two weeks for review prior to the timing of the meeting.

UMSOM faculty and staff are subject to MD State law, USM, UMB, and UMSOM policies regarding acceptance of gifts, external professional commitments, and consulting. Per those policies, UMSOM personnel may not accept any gift from industry, including food and travel funds. This includes attendance at industry-sponsored drug dinners at restaurants.

For consulting, activities should be academic or educational in nature. Faculty and staff should not engage in any sort of promotional or marketing activities on behalf of a company.

All external financial interests, regardless of the amount of money, should be disclosed, including external consulting agreeements, scientific advisory boards, company ownership, stock ownership in relevant industries (pharmaceutical and medical device companies), income from IP that is not paid by UMB, etc. You should also disclose any income for services (honoraria, review panels, advisory committees, travel expenses, etc.) paid by corporate entities or foreign institutions, including foreign instiutitions of higher education or foreign governments.

You do NOT need to disclose:

• sponsored research agreements negotiated through UMB in which all funds are managed by UMB
• income from mutual funds or retirement accounts where you do not manage investment decisions
• salary, royalties, or any renumeration paid to you through UMB
• income for services (honoraria, review panels, advisory committees, travel expenses) paid by a US federal, state, or local government agency or a US institution of higher education
• your VA appointment

Yes, SOM policy states that all faculty must submit a disclosure annually. If you do not have any external activities or financial interests, you can answer "no" to the question asking whether "you, your spouse, dependent children, or other close family member, have now or in the last 12 months, any relationship of financial interest with an external company or organization related in any way to your UMB role(s) or responsibilities?" If you can answer "no" to that question, the entire disclosure should take no more than 5 minutes.

All SOM faculty were required to complete their eDisclosures by October 1, 2020. If you have not already done so, please complete your disclosure as soon as possible. Instructions and guidance are available here. Once you have completed your initial disclosure, you will receive reminder emails around the anniversary of that disclosure to complete your new annual disclosure. Additionally, you should update your disclosure in eDisclose within 30 days of acquiring a new financial interest or external activity. New faculty should complete their disclosures within 60 day of hire, and as soon as possible.

Anyone involved in the design, conduct, or reporting of PHS-sponsored research, must disclose all signfiicant financial interests annually to UMB. This includes faculty (including principal investigators, co-investigators, collaborators, consultants, etc.), postdoctoral fellows, students, and other trainees. Collaborators at other institutions listed on your grants must also complete their COI training and disclosures. If their institution is listed here, they do not need to complete additional trainings and disclosures for UMB. If they are not included on that list, they will need to take the COI training offered by UMB and complete our annual disclosure form.

For SOM faculty, your annual disclosure in eDisclose will suffice for your required PHS-disclosure. For staff, students, and other trainees, complete the SFI Disclosure Form and submit to disclosure@umaryland.edu. Questions when filling out the form should be directed to disclosure@umaryland.edu.