The COI office recently began conducting more comprehensive COI compliance reviews for grants supporting human subjects research as it relates to faculty co-investigators. In most cases, AURA Grants View 8.0 does not provide a full list of co-investigators that will conduct the research. As a result, not all co-investigators participating in the research were being consistently assessed for COI compliance. This is problematic both from a University COI policy perspective and from a PHS regulation standpoint when PHS/NIH grant funds are involved.
Before the COI office provides clearance for award distribution for grants supporting human subjects research, my team will be reviewing the Co-Is listed in Grants View 8.0 and the Co-Is listed on the IRB study personnel list. Co-Is who have not submitted the current year’s AURA COI disclosure will be required to do so, and for PHS-funded projects those without an active (within 4 years) COI CITI training certification will also be required to do so before we can approve award distribution. The COI office will continue to provide COI compliance feedback per the usual process, by logging a comment in AURA Grants. Subsequently, the message will be passed along to the relevant unit contact. Once the unit has received confirmation that the COI disclosure has been completed they will need to email URA-M in AURA Grants to notify URA to review and proceed with award distribution.
To attempt to offset any potential delays or added review burden, my team has been sending a list of faculty who have not yet completed their COI disclosures to unit administrators.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns by contacting us at coi@lists.uchicago.edu. Requests from units for a list of their faculty who have not completed their COI disclosures can also be sent to that email address.
Thank you,
Mallory A. Snyder, MPH, CSSGB
Director, Research Integrity
mallorysnyder@uchicago.edu
p: 773.702.4857