Sonoma State University (SSU) is committed to promoting and facilitating research by encouraging the involvement, collaboration, and partnership of academic researchers and educators with public and private sector grants, contracts, ventures, and entrepreneurial activities. However, such involvements create a risk of conflict between the private interests of individuals, the companies with which they are involved, and the public interest. SSU have adopted policies that regulate potential conflicts of interest among faculty and staff members employed on grants and contracts as required by federal, state, CSU, and SSU laws and policies. If a real or potential conflict is disclosed, it will be confidentially reviewed and a determination made whether the conflict requires the development of a resolution plan to address the conflicts.
- SSU's policy on Conflict of Interest: Funds Awarded by the National Science Foundation and the Public Health Service
Investigators of all externally sponsored programs must follow this policy.
View disclosure requirements by funding source Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) Chart.
Public Health Service (PHS)/National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Investigators must complete the SSU FCOI Disclosure Form prior to submission of a PHS proposal and upon the receipt and during the administration of the award. This includes National Institutes of Health, but a full list of PHS sponsors can be found at the Federal Demonstration Partnership website.
Additional PHS/NIH FCOI requirements are detailed in the Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) Chart.
Reference:
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/coi/index.htm
National Science Foundation (NSF)/U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Investigators must complete the SSU FCOI Disclosure Form prior to submission of an NSF/USDA proposal, when new personnel are added and when the investigator’s financial interest changes.
Additional NSF/USDA FCOI requirements are detailed in the Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) Chart.
References:
https://new.nsf.gov/policies/pappg
https://nifa.usda.gov/regulations-and-guidelines
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
Investigators must complete the SSU FCOI Disclosure Form prior to submission of a DOE grant proposal, when new personnel are added, and when the investigator's financial interest changes.
Additional DOE FCOI requirements are detailed in FCOI Disclosure Requirements by Funding Source.
Reference:
https://www.energy.gov/management/financial-assistance-letter-no-fal-2022-02
Non-Governmental
Investigators who are awarded grants from non-governmental sponsors, which are not exempt* from the disclosure requirement must complete the CSU Chancellor’s Office Conflict of Interest training program and complete the Form 700-U. *View the list of exempt non-governmental agencies.
Additional non-governmental FCOI requirements are detailed in FCOI Disclosure Requirements by Funding Source.
Reference:
https://www.fppc.ca.gov/content/fppc-v2/fppc-www/Form700.html
Training
The Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI) was founded in March 2000 as a collaboration between the University of Miami and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to develop a web-based training program in human research subjects protections. The CITI course contains training modules for Biomedical and Social and Behavior Science research.
In addition to the "basic" content, the CITI model provides the opportunity for our institution to post additional instructional materials specific to SSU training needs such as the Financial Conflict of Interest Training (FCOI) required by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for recipients of NIH grant awards/funds.
If you have already completed training in human research protections then you already have an account established and may simply log in using that existing username and password. If not, simply click on the link below and create your username and password. Once logged in please follow the directions noted below.
For SSU, the CITI Online Training site is utilized to complete the required conflict of interest training and should take 20 to 30 minutes to complete. The CITI training website will ask you a series of questions after first asking you whether you would like to receive continuing educations credits. Select No as these credits are not associated with any SSU course credit.
Under question 1 (Human Subjects Research) select - not at this time.
Under question 2 (Laboratory Animal Welfare) select - nothing.
Under question 3 (Would you like to take the COI mini-course) select - yes.
Under question 4 (Good Clinical Practice) do not check the box.
Under question 5 (Responsible Conduct of Research) select - not at this time.
Select Finalize Registration.
Select View Courses then select Start Now to complete your course.