Objectivity in Research

The Public Health Service (PHS) and the Office of the Secretary, HHS, are promulgating regulations establishing standards and procedures to be followed by institutions that apply for research funding from the PHS to ensure that the design, conduct, or reporting of research funded under PHS grants, cooperative agreements or contracts will not be biased by any conflicting financial interest of those investigators responsible for the research. Under the rules, investigators are required to disclose to an official(s) designated by the institution a listing of Significant Financial Interests (and those of his/her spouse and dependent children) that would reasonably appear to be affected by the research proposed for funding by the PHS. The institutional official(s) will review those disclosures and determine whether any of the reported financial interests could directly and significantly affect the design, conduct, or reporting of the research and, if so, the institution must, prior to any expenditure of awarded funds, report the existence of such conflicting interests to the PHS Awarding Component and act to protect PHS-funded research from bias due to the conflict of interest.