In the summer of 2012, as a result of several changes in federal law and other factors, the Texas A&M University system adopted new policies in regards to disclosure and training about Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) for research Investigators.
For questions about the TAMUS policy, consult: System Policy 15-01-03, Financial Conflicts of Interest in Sponsored Research.
At that time a mechanism was needed to identify employees that were subject to the new disclosure and training requirements. It was determined that the following employees would be subject to these new requirements:
- Employees with titles that were marked as PI eligible in the TAMUS payroll/HR system (BPP)
- Faculty members with tenure.
- Graduate Assistants – Research
This criteria was adopted, but over time it has proved problematic. Exceptions and over-rides have been implemented by changing employee’s PI Eligible status – often leading to confusion.
In May of 2013 the decision was made to add a new indicator to the official employee records in BPP that would indicate if the employee was subject to the FCOI requirements.
- Management of this element has moved to the Maestro application.
The flag has initially been set for all employees to be true if:
- The employee is PI eligible
- The employee is tenured faculty
- The employee is a Graduate Assistant – Research