Conflict of Interest Declaration + Policy

# Conflict of Interest Declaration + Policy Last updated: 2024-03-18 URL for this page: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/conflict-of-interest URL for this site: https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/how-we-work ## Overview Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) interacts with many collaborators and stakeholders in its work. In these conversations, some may have overlapping interest with parts of IOI’s strategy and operations that bias their contributions or otherwise compromise their independence, particularly when it comes to making funding and resourcing recommendations or working with external partners. This might apply to funding bodies, university leaders, members of the infrastructure community, and supporting organizations. While these conflicts can't be completely eliminated we recognize that disclosing these potential conflicts in an open and transparent way helps establish accountability and build trust. This Conflict of Interest Declaration and Policy is an important piece of information to help us understand the potential external influence in the form of Board representation, involvement in similar initiatives, and other ties to funding and funding bodies that could interfere with the independent, reliable, and authoritative engagement we seek with our partners. We aspire to be transparent about our affliations as they relate to IOI’s work and that in adjacent sectors. We anticipate that nearly everyone involved in IOI’s work will disclose some conflicts of interests, due to the nature of relationships across the ecosystem. Below we propose a process to collect and disclose conflicts of interest as well as practical norms for how to navigate potential conflicts in real-time (e.g. meetings, IOI hosted events, etc). ## Who this applies to The Conflict of Interest Declaration and Policy is intended for all IOI staff, governance members, contractors, and consultants. In participating in this process, individuals consent to have this information be disclosed to IOI and made available publicly on our website (https://investinopen.org), in line with IOI’s commitment to transparency and accountability. Adopting this practice will make it easier to - understand how another stakeholder's interests align with IOI’s interests - pursue aligned interests with partners with upfront knowledge - identify overlap in interests in order to partner together - identify disconnect in interests to understand where to put guardrails in collaboration - make it easier for stakeholders with potential conflicts of interest to know when/how to engage in this topic with IOI and the communities we serve. During your tenure/employment at IOI, we ask that you notify us via email when there is a change to any of the information you have provided in this Form. ## Meeting norms **What hat you're wearing**: When people interact in IOI spaces, we ask that you divulge which "hat" we are wearing at a moment in time. This is a proxy for sharing whose interests you are representing in that conversation (personal, organizational, etc). We all often wear multiple hats, so the goal is not to shoe-horn someone into a box, but to be transparent. --- ## Disclosure form ### Link to disclosure form To fill out the form, please follow the link that will be sent to you via email at the time of your onboarding. ### Text of disclosure form Invest in Open Infrastructure’s Conflict of Interest Declaration 1. The undersigned hereby acknowledges that the undersigned: a. Has received a copy of the Conflict of Interest Declaration and Policy, b. Has read and understands the Conflict of Interest Declaration and Policy, c. Consents to making their conflict of interest disclosures below publicly available via IOI’s website, d. Has agreed to comply with the Conflict of Interest Declaration and Policy as outlined. 2. For the questions below, please select "Yes" to indicate if you have a conflict, potential conflict, or competing interests to disclose as they relate to IOI’s work. - [ ] a. Current affiliations & employers: - If yes, please describe: ___ - [ ] b. Current Board affiliations and Advisory positions: - If yes, please describe: ___ - [ ] c. Current memberships (e.g. professional associations, consortia, etc) - If yes, please describe: ___ - [ ] d. Current major funding sources (over $100K USD) - If yes, please describe: ___ - [ ] e. Other projects you may be associated with as a volunteer or unpaid committee member - If yes, please describe: ___ - [ ] f. Other affiliations or interests you’d like to disclose - If yes, please describe: ___ Date: ____________________ Name: __________________ Title: __________________ Signature: ____________________ --- ## Responses We maintain a [list of responses](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zibDbDK5o7VciMPflt5YfNu53QJv37HMZr5aWTzueWg/edit?usp=sharing) received to date. A view of the spreadsheet is below. <iframe width="100%" height="500" src="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zibDbDK5o7VciMPflt5YfNu53QJv37HMZr5aWTzueWg/edit?usp=sharing" frameborder="0"></iframe> --- ## See also * Archived copy of this page (via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine): https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://hackmd.io/@investinopen/conflict-of-interest --- This page first published: 2022-04-27 ###### tags: `about-us` --- <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />This work is made available under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Users are free to share, remix, and adapt this work. (Please attribute [Invest in Open Infrastructure](https://investinopen.org/) in any derivative work).