Outside Professional Activities (OPA) Guidance

You are required to report these engagements when Reasonably Related to your Institutional Responsibilities, whether financially compensated or uncompensated.This helps ensure accurate and meaningful reporting. If you're unsure whether an engagement qualifies, consider whether it overlaps with your MIT duties, research, or decision-making roles.

• All engagement with foreign entities including foreign government agencies, institutes of higher education, research institutes affiliated with institutes of higher education, academic teaching hospitals, medical centers, and informal collaborations intended to result in publications, which may include any exchange of materials and or personnel and are not carried out under a formal agreement.
• Consulting for a company, university, or other entity, including service as an expert witness, foreign or domestic
• In addition to your MIT appointment, including while on leave from MIT, any engagement or appointment other than traditional consulting, at a company, university, government agency or other entity, foreign or domestic (i.e. honorific appointments)
• Membership on a corporate, technical, scientific or advisory board, including serving on a Board of Directors, foreign or domestic
• Speaking at corporate/industry conferences or seminars (i.e. for-profit entities like Boeing, Biogen, Google) for which you receive compensation more than a standard de minimis honorarium (i.e. <$1,000), foreign or domestic
• Providing commissioned papers or reports, foreign or domestic, compensated or not compensated.
• Providing professional services on industry publications, review boards or panels
• Compensated service on for-profit journal publications (e.g., Nature, Elsevier or similar)
• Teaching/lecturing outside MIT, at universities or companies, in degree or non-degree programs
• Participating in any talent or other academic recruitment program for a company, university, government, or other entity, including in exchange for support in the form of research funding, lab facilities or research staff, or in connection with the receipt of an honorarium, monetary prize, or other compensation. Note: Red flags for a malign foreign talent recruitment program are: 
  • You may have entered into an agreement with a program directly instead of through MIT 
  • The focus of the program may be replicating your U.S. funded research programs
  • You may have been asked not to disclose the engagement, or specific terms of the engagement, to MIT or U.S. sponsors of your research
• Teaching in MIT’s executive, professional, international, or other special or summer programs

Because the common activities below are to the mutual benefit of the Institute and the individual, the Institute does not require them to be reported as OPA: 

• Carrying out research with any individual or group of individuals, foreign or domestic, in such a manner that does not carry commitment, exchanges of goods, or any other material advantage.
• Participating in a workshop or similar gathering that focuses on discussion and development of research ideas and does not carry a commitment, exchanges of goods, or any other material advantage.
• Speaking at (research presentation, lecture) academic conferences or seminars at U.S. federal, state or local governmental agencies; U.S. institutes of higher education (e.g., Harvard, Stanford); U.S. research institutes affiliated with institutes of higher education (e.g. Whitehead Institute and Broad Institute), academic teaching hospitals, and medical centers (e.g. MGH, Children’s Hospital)
• Serving on advisory committees or review panels, for U.S. federal, state, or local governmental agencies; U.S. institutes of higher education (e.g., Harvard, Stanford); U.S. research institutes affiliated with institutes of higher education (e.g. Whitehead Institute and Broad Institute), academic teaching hospitals, and medical centers (e.g. MGH, Children’s Hospital)
• Service to professional societies (e.g., American Chemical Society and AAAS)
• Uncompensated or compensated service on professional society or peer reviewed non-profit journals (e.g., Science, PNAS, AAAS journals and similar)

All other activities not Reasonably Related to Institutional Responsibilities do not need to be reported as Outside Professional Activities.

Individuals must disclose and keep their OPAs updated during leaves and sabbaticals.

If you are at MIT working on a visa, talk to ISchO or your HR administrator before pursuing OPA.

Avoid engaging active students, advisees, trainees and/or other direct reports in OPA. Including students and MIT personnel in OPA could create a conflict of interest, especially if you are advising a student’s thesis without a co-advisor or thesis committee.

However, if being involved with a faculty member’s OPA would benefit a student’s educational experience, discuss the possibility with your department head and the COI officer. They may be able to develop a plan to mitigate the risk of a conflict of interest before you engage with the student.

Using MIT labs or specialized facilities to support OPA is prohibited. Using core facilities in OPA is allowable, as long you comply with the facility’s terms and conditions. 

Incidental use of your MIT-issued laptop or phone to support OPA is acceptable. 

MIT's logo, name, branded resources or trademarks cannot be used in conjunction with an OPA.