FAQ: Do I need to disclose foreign entity activities and interests?

What about my activities involving universities or research institutions based outside of the U.S.?

Yes - any income, travel funding, or other financial interests that involve foreign entities, including government agencies, for-profit and non-profit organizations, and institutions of higher education and research must be described in your COI disclosure (in the iRIS system) when the threshold of a “significant financial interest", or SFI, is met.

Two types of SFIs are provided below:

  1. You receive or acquire anything of monetary value over $5,000 USD from an entity, in aggregate, over the last twelve (12) months
  2. You acquire any amount of equity interest in a non-publicly traded company

Where

  • "you" includes you, your spouse/domestic partner, and your dependent children
  • the entity or company involved is related in some way to your expertise, work, and responsibilities at OSU

If you have a financial interest, but are unsure as to the aggregate value, we recommend disclosing the interest as a good-faith effort to ensure appropriate transparency.

You must also disclose your outside professional activities and entity relationships according to OSU's Policy on Conflicts of Commitment ;(COC) and when applicable, complete and submit a Request for Approval of Outside Professional Activities form.

Finally, it may be useful to review the following OSU webpages:

 

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