Outside Activities and Conflicts of Interest

The UF Conflicts of Interest (COI) Program is an office established under the purview of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. The UF COI Program administers UFOLIO (UF Online Interest Organizer), UF’s new online reporting system that streamlines, modernizes, and standardizes the way UF employees disclose their reportable outside activities and financial interests. In collaboration with campus partners, the UF COI Program seeks to identify and manage conflicts of interest that could undermine institutional integrity.

UF Conflicts of Interest Policy

FAQ’s

For FAQs on how to perform various tasks in UFOLIO, see either the print version or the screen version of our UFOLIO Functionality FAQ resource.

Have a question that’s not on this list? Email UFOLIO-help@ufl.edu.

What is a conflict of interest?

According to Florida Statutes, a conflict of interest means a situation in which regard for a private interest tends to lead to disregard of a public duty or interest.

What are outside activities?

Outside activities draw upon the knowledge, skills, or abilities employees use to fulfill institutional responsibilities and are performed for outside entities. Examples include consulting, teaching appointments at other universities, expert witness services, industry advisory board participation, etc. Please review the Fundamental Considerations for UF Employees.

Who needs to complete the UFOLIO form?

Currently, UFOLIO is available for four populations: 1) Faculty, adjuncts, and postdoctoral associates holding a 0.26 FTE or higher appointment, 2) High-level TEAMS staff (generally, this population includes director-level staff and above), 3) College of Medicine TEAMS Physicians in the Regional Physician Network, and 4) UFIRST key personnel. If you are in these populations, you can access UFOLIO and submit your Disclosure of Interest (DOI) at ufolio.compliance.ufl.edu.

I am not in the current UFOLIO population. How do I disclose my outside activities and interests?

At this time, employees who are not part of the UFOLIO population should utilize the previous procedure and submit their disclosures via the paper disclosure form, which may be found here.

How often am I expected to report my activities?

You are required to obtain prior approval for certain outside activities and interests; please submit disclosures for outside activities at least 30 days before the anticipated start date. For those that submit through UFOLIO: your UFOLIO portfolio should be updated annually at a minimum based on the date of last approval, and even if you do not have an outside activity to report, you still have to submit that you have nothing to disclose in the system.

What types of activities and financial interests need to be reported?

UFOLIO provides a description of each type of disclosure that needs to be submitted, and a list of disclosure types with explanations may be found here. A useful list of examples and types of outside activities and financial interests may be found here.

Resources

What to Report

WHAT TO REPORT

Inside Activity Decision Tree

Are you uncertain if an activity should be disclosed in UFOLIO? This resource guides you through steps to determine if something is an “inside activity” that is part of an employee’s UF job duties. Inside activities should not be disclosed in UFOLIO; outside activities must be disclosed in advance in UFOLIO if they fall under one of UF’s 11 disclosure types. 

Training Courses

TRAINING COURSES

General UFOLIO Training

This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn more about UFOLIO, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. The course gives an overview of what UFOLIO is, why it is being used, and what it means for employees.

Instruction Guides

INSTRUCTION GUIDES

UFOLIO Functionality FAQ – Print Version

Do you need help figuring out how to do something in UFOLIO? Check out this new guide with common UFOLIO functionality questions. Please note, there are two versions of this guide: this print version has no screen shots and can be easily printed and referenced.