Outside Professional Activity (OPA) Disclosure Process

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 Outside Professional Activities with foreign entities including foreign government agencies, institutes of higher education, research institutes (whether independent or 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 (OPA, requires full disclosure) 
• All Institutional Responsibilities with foreign entities including foreign government agencies, institutes of higher education, research institutes (whether independent or 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. (Foreign non-OPA, requires short disclosure)
  
  Examples include:
  • Participating in a foreign 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 foreign (research presentation, lecture) academic conferences or seminars
  • Serving on foreign advisory committees or review panels
  • Service to foreign professional societies
  • Uncompensated or compensated service on foreign professional society or peer reviewed non-profit journals
• Consulting for a company, university, or other entity, including service as an expert witness, foreign or domestic (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• 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) (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• Membership on a corporate, technical, scientific or advisory board, including serving on a Board of Directors, foreign or domestic (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• 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 (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• Providing commissioned papers or reports, foreign or domestic, compensated or not compensated (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• Providing professional services on industry publications, review boards or panels
• Compensated service on for-profit journal publications (e.g., Nature, Elsevier or similar) (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• Teaching/lecturing outside MIT, at universities or companies, in degree or non-degree programs (OPA, requires full disclosure)
• 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. (OPA, requires full disclosure)
  
  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
• Compensated teaching at MIT EDx, MIT Professional Education , Sloan Executive Education (or other Sloan courses where payment is allowed), and other MIT-run and authorized non-degree, professional programs (MPA, requires short disclosure)

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 U.S. 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 U.S. professional societies (e.g., American Chemical Society and AAAS)
• Uncompensated or compensated service on U.S. professional society or U.S. 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.