The Outside Professional Activities (OPAs) of faculty, staff, and researchers foster individual relationships beyond MIT that can be both productive and fulfilling. That said, to follow federal requirements, MIT policy, and best practices in research, you are required to assess and report potential conflicts between your MIT work and your OPAs.
You are responsible for keeping the Institute continually apprised of your OPAs. Discussion and review of the OPA should occur prior to the engagement, to identify any possible conflicts of interest or commitment. If a potential conflict is identified, it can often be formally managed, enabling the activity to proceed within appropriate limits.
Permitted Time
For faculty and some others, Permitted Time allows for the use of Institutional Time for OPAs. For more information, see Permitted Time for OPAs.
Review Process
For OPAs which are new, or for substantive updates to existing OPAs, you should review details with an appropriate point of contact at MIT before starting the engagement. For faculty, this is usually your DLCI head, and for researchers, your supervisor. These discussions are to identify any possible risk or impact on your MIT responsibilities (such as malign foreign talent recruitment programs or sensitive technology areas).
To guide these discussions, you can use the consulting questionnaire to submit details for your DLCI head’s review. Using the consulting questionnaire facilitates additional reviews such as export control, research security, dean’s office, and others as needed.
- If not using the consulting questionnaire, document any discussion with your DLCI head in writing and upload to MyCOI-OPA+.
- Have your own outside legal counsel review any contract associated with your OPA.
Disclosure Process
Faculty, researchers, research staff, academic instructional staff, postdocs, and others as directed must complete or re-certify an OPA disclosure in MyCOI-OPA+:
- Within 30 days of starting a new engagement or renewing an existing one
- If 12 months have passed since their last OPA disclosure, even if they have no engagements or other changes to report
Other disclosures may be required:
- Financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) disclosure, if you have a research portfolio
- Disclosures to sponsors, as required by the sponsor. Disclosing to MIT is not a disclosure to the sponsor.
Examples of OPA
OPAs can take many forms, such as:
- Consulting
- Volunteering
- Pro-bono activities
- Activities which are compensated or uncompensated
MIT provides guidance on certain types of OPAs:
- Adjunct professorships at foreign institutions
- International engagements (Assessing and Mitigating Risk)
- Consulting
- Starting a company
OPA While On Leave or On a Visa
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Individuals must disclose and keep their OPAs updated during leaves and sabbaticals.
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If you are at MIT working on a visa, talk to ISchO or your HR administrator before pursuing OPA.
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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.
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In general, using your MIT lab or resources to support OPA is not allowed. Certain core facilities enable use for OPAs, 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.
For more information, review the COC Policy Guidance and Institute Use of Name policies.
Managing Conflicts
Potential real or perceived conflicts could arise from:
- Lack of defined role or deliverables which are not Separate and Distinct from your Institutional Responsibilities
- Inadvertently engaging with a malign foreign talent recruitment program
- Engaging with high-risk international entities
Options to manage conflicts may include:
- Developing a conflict of interest management plan to enable activities to proceed but with sensible limits and oversight.
- Changing or stopping the activity.
To learn more about mitigating conflicts of commitment in OPA, review the Conflict of Commitment Policy Guidance: