CASE STUDY #1: S-CORE

DESCRIPTION OF EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIP

Dr.Sizzle, a professor in the Department of Communications Disorders, is the sole owner of a company called S-Core and holds an executive position with S-Core. He created this corporation to develop print materials for education of clients with hearing loss. S-Core plans to sell these materials to hearing-impaired individuals through a national distributor. S-Core was also created to apply for a patent for an electronic test which, if funded, will be developed and evaluated by a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant. The Office of Patents and Technology Marketing has waived their interest in the invention. Dr. Sizzle holds the patent. At the moment, Dr. Sizzle is listed as the Principal Investigator for the University's section of the grant. There is also at least one graduate student who will be working under Dr. Sizzle on this project, if it is funded.

AREAS OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST

It is the Committee’s view that Dr. Sizzle’s position with S-Core is a potential conflict of interest under the following provision of the Regents Policy:

> An employee or immediate family member holding an executive position in a business engaged in commercial or research activities directly related to the employee’s University responsibilities. Regents Policy on Financial or Business Conflict of Interest (June 8, 2001), art. 5, sec. III, subd. 2(b).

In addition, it is the Committee’s view that serving as Principal Investigator and assigning a graduate student on the technology research, of which Dr. Sizzle owns the patent and is the sole owner of the company, would be a potential conflict of interest under the following provisions of the Regents Policy:

> An employee participating in clinical trials or evaluation or development of a technology, process, or product owned or controlled by a business in which the employee, an immediate family member, or an associated entity has financial or business interests.

> An employee assigning students, postdoctoral fellows, or other trainees to projects supported by a business (through sponsored research or a contribution) in which the employee, an immediate family member, or an associated entity has a financial or business interest, other than royalty income or the entitlement to future royalty income under University royalty-sharing policies. Regents Policy on Financial or Business Conflict of Interest (June 8, 2001), art. 5, sec. III, subd. 1 (a and b).

The Committee is supportive of the potential benefits to be gained by Dr. Sizzle’s work and does not wish to see it marred by conflict claims that could arise internally or publicly.

Conflict Management Plan

Dr. Sizzle has created the following plan to minimize a potential conflict from occurring:

1. All of the development work will be completed by S-Core. The role of the University will be the evaluation of the product. There will be a clear separation of the development and evaluation activities in the work plan and in the financial management.
2. Dr. Tubane, a co-investigator who has no commercial interest in the project, will oversee the evaluation from the University's perspective.
3. Although a graduate student will be involved in the development and evaluation, Dr. Sizzle will not serve on the student’s Dissertation Committee nor have any role in evaluating his or her academic progress.
4. All of Dr. Sizzle's work on behalf of S-Core will constitute less than 20% effort and will not exceed the allowance for external consulting.

The Committee approves the above management plan with the following clarifications:

- Dr. Tubane will be the principal investigator of any University Grant from S-Core.
- Dr. Sizzle is not the supervisor of, or in any position to influence, Dr. Tubane, and therefore, will have no control over the evaluation of the research completed at the University.
- The development of the product will be completed outside the University.
- The graduate student working on this project will not be hired to work directly for S-Core, outside of the student's University employment.
- Dr. Sizzle has agreed to disclose, in writing, his financial conflict of interest to the graduate student.
- If at any time Dr. Sizzle anticipates working on the development of electronic test at the University, he must disclose this to the Committee. We will reevaluate for a potential conflict of interest at that time.

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