Welcome to the University of Tennessee Knoxville Conflict of Interest website. This site provides employees and outside collaborators with information to empower their journey towards compliance with outside interest engagements. UT’s Conflicts of Interest & Commitment policy GE0002 can be found here!

How is a Conflict of Interest form submitted?

Access the IRIS Web Portal using your NetID and go to the Employee Self-Service tab. Under the Personal Information area, choose the Outside Interest Disclosure link and follow the instructions.

Why is compliance with UT’s Conflict of Interest Policy important?

Conflicts of interest have the potential to threaten the integrity of the university’s research, scholarship, instruction, and administrative functions.

Conflicts of Interest also have the potential to affect the reputation of not only UT but of our employees. The Conflicts of Interest process ensures an appropriate review of outside interests has been completed. Meeting this goal requires 100% transparency of outside interests to be disclosed by employees.

What is expected of UT employees to achieve compliance? (Glad you asked!!)

Employees must disclose outside interests in accordance with university policies so they can be reviewed, managed, or eliminated, as appropriate. UT expects employees to take all reasonable precautions and seek guidance to ensure their outside interests do not place them in conflict with performing their duties and responsibilities as UT employees.

Determining conflicts is not the responsibility of university employees but the University itself.

Basic steps for ensuring compliance are:

• Each year, employees will receive an email notifying them of the requirement to complete an annual Outside Interest Disclosure (OID) Form.
• Employees have 30 days to complete the form.
• Employees must update and disclose outside activities prior to engaging in any new outside activities, but no later than 30 days after the engagement.
• UT expects employees to provide complete information to the questions being asked. Keep in mind, as listed in Guidance document GE0002, “You should disclose…if you can (even might) answer “Yes” to any one of” the questions being asked.
• During the annual disclosure review process, the responsible University official will contact employees and their supervisors with any questions regarding disclosed activities.

For more information contact Jay Taylor Bailey at vtaylor@utk.edu.