Updated: 8/18/2023
The UAB Enterprise Conflict of Interest and Conflict of Commitment Policy was revised in January 2021 to require certain UAB employees to submit annual disclosures. Individuals with the following roles must fulfill this requirement before September 15, 2023.
- Investigators. This includes any individual, regardless of title, position, or employment, who is responsible for the design, conduct, or reporting of research, which is defined as any active or pending project processed through OSP or IRB.
- Full-time faculty. This includes any faculty member with a full-time appointment.
- Institutional Officials. This includes specific employees [i.e., University President, University Provost, University Vice Presidents, Deans, and Chairs] who have direct authority over allocation of institutional resources, assignments of graduate students, trainees, funding, space, salary, or promotions for faculty.
- Other Designated Employees. This includes other administrators in key decision-making, signatory, or assurance roles.
Employees whose roles are included in one or more of the groups listed above were notified by email on August 14, 2023, with instructions on completing the annual requirement (due September 15, 2023).
Below are instructions for completion of the annual disclosure requirement:
- Log into the UAB Forms Dashboard using your Blazer ID and password. Please note the dashboard is only accessible via on-campus network or UAB Secure Access VPN.
- Click on the "Forms Quicklinks" on the upper right menu; select "Forms History;" and review all of the Requests for External Activity Approval forms, Notices of PPSA forms, and Disclosure of Financial Interest forms you submitted covering the previous twelve (12) months.
- If not complete and accurate, submit those respective forms as necessary.
- If your submissions are complete and accurate (even if you have none), proceed to the Conflict of Interest and Commitment Forms Suite on the left menu. Make sure you respond to the screening questions appropriately based on your status, and select the "Disclosure of Financial Interests Form {Includes Annual Disclosure}.".
The simple four step process should take no longer than seven minutes to complete for those who have already submitted Request for External Activity Approval forms, Notices of PPSA forms, and Disclosure of Financial Interest forms as required.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This UAB annual requirement is not the same as the 2021 Statement of Economic Interest Form, which the Alabama Ethics Commission requires of certain individuals to disclose potential conflicts of interest. For certain UAB employees, this form may be in addition to disclosures required by the University of Alabama System Office.
Please review the Annual Requirement FAQs for additional information.
Investigators who have questions about this annual requirement should contact the Office of the Conflict of Interest Review Board (OCIRB) in the Office of Research at 205-975-9692 or
All other questions may be directed to the Office of Compliance & Risk Assurance at 205-996-6540 or
New Investigators - Investigators that are new to UAB or new to their role in research must complete a Disclosure of Financial Interest prior to undertaking any research, even if there are no financial interests to report.
If no interests are disclosed, no further information is necessary unless something changes. If something does change, Investigators have 30 days to disclose the new financial interest.
If interests are disclosed at that time, Investigators must submit another Disclosure of Financial Interests within 30 days of acquiring a new interest or experiencing a change in an interest previously disclosed or annually to re-certify that the disclosed interests are still current.
Current Investigators - All current UAB Investigators currently participating in ongoing research should have already submitted an initial financial interest disclosure. If not, please refer to the above. Otherwise, all current UAB Investigators must submit a Disclosure of Financial Interest within 30 days of acquiring a new interest or experiencing a change in an interest previously disclosed or annually to re-certify that the disclosed interests are still current.
Disclosure of Financial Interests submission instructions for current UAB Faculty/Staff: (All other individuals, please look out for an email from the Office of the CIRB with a paper form and instructions, or contact the Office of the CIRB at
- To complete a Disclosure of Financial Interest, visit Administrative Systems and choose "UAB Forms."
- Login using your Blazer ID and password. (PLEASE NOTE: Access to UAB Forms is only allowed via on-campus network or with UABSecureAccess VPN connection. Please visit uab.edu/vpn for information about VPN connections.)
- Click on "Conflict of Interest and Commitment Forms Suite," and the form will open.
- Select the appropriate answer for "My Employment Classification Is."
- Please answer "Yes" to "Are you an Investigator or an Institutional Official?" (Anyone listed on the OSP project or IRB protocol is an Investigator.)
- Please select Disclosure of Financial Interest [NEW FOR 2022! COMPLETE YOUR ANNUAL REQUIREMENT HERE] (3rd selection), then click Next.
- The General Information Page should already contain your information. Click next.
- Please answer the remaining questions and click "submit."
The "Foreign entities" portion of the form is an expansion for UAB Compliance purposes. Inquiries arising from this section of the Disclosure of Interests form should be sent to UAB Compliance.
Conflict of Interest Review Board
The OCIRB is charged with the ongoing development of procedures for identifying, reviewing, and managing financial conflicts of interest (FCOI) as they relate to extramurally-funded research and all research involving human subjects regardless of the funding source.
Information about actual, potential or perceived financial conflicts of interests (FCOI) of UAB Investigators with research may be viewed on the CIRB web site under the COI policies tab.
Important Announcements
The UAB Enterprise Conflict of Interest Conflict of Commitment policy was revised in January 2021 to require certain UAB employees to “review and recertify disclosures of financial interests annually” while maintaining a role of full-time faculty, investigator, or institutional official. This additional annual requirement is the mechanism by which these annual disclosures are reviewed and recertified.
Employees were instructed via direct e-mails on August 15th, 2023, to complete their annual disclosure and reminder emails have been sent. After September 30, 2023, failure to complete the annual requirement may preclude the submission of research proposals to funding agencies, and it may result in the rejection of IRB submissions if a noncompliant investigator is listed as key personnel on the protocol.