The University of Connecticut Health Center has received a letter from Carolyn
Mason, Grants Management Specialist, at NCI, which states:

 "It is important for you to be aware that it is also a grantee
 institution's responsibility to verify that conflicts of interest
 do not exist for individuals participating in PHS-supported research
 under consortium agreements.  Institutions with which a grantee
 institution has consortium agreements should have their own written
 rules of conduct that comply with PHS policy and should ensure to the
 grantee's satisfaction that the individuals who are working on PHS-
 supported projects are in compliance with those policies."

 "Please ... provide a brief explanation of both the procedure(s) that
 will be established to cover individuals participating in PHS-
 supported research under consortium agreements..."

I have a few questions which I would like to send out to the net.

 1)  Has any other institution received a similar letter from Ms. Mason?
 If so, are you aware of what seems to be driving this issue?  UCHC
 has a subcontract from Pitt for the NSABP, which has recently had
 its share of problems.  Is Ms. Mason's letter related to the NSABP
 scandal?

 2)  Is anyone aware of the regulatory basis for Ms. Mason's assertion
 that we "verify" that COIs do not exist for individuals participating
 in our subcontracts?  I have not found a basis for this assertion.

 3)  If another institution has received such a similar requirement,
 what are you doing about it, or do you already have a program in place
 for such verification, and what are the details about the program.

Thanks.

Len Paplauskas
Asst. VP for Research
UCONN Health Center
Farmington, CT   06030-5355
203-679-3173
203-679-3173 (fax)
)