External Activities Frequently Asked Questions
The FAQs below provide supplemental guidance for UAB employees and their supervisors on various special circumstances surrounding external activities. For more general FAQs, including those specifically about the forms processes, see UAB Electronic Forms.
Important considerations in deciding whether to accept an expert witness opportunity include whether:
- UAB is a party to the lawsuit;
- Lawsuit involves a claim related to a pharmaceutical drug or medical device;
- Lawsuit involves a medical malpractice claim filed in Alabama; or
- Opinions are based on data resulting from work conducted at or on behalf of UAB.
- Advance approval is required (pursuant to UAB's online process);
- Activity must be conducted outside the scope of a UAB team member's employment so that UAB is not responsible for any proceeding or cause of action arising out of the external activity;
- Use of UAB resources is prohibited; and
- UAB team members must not hold themselves out as representatives of UAB or imply that their opinions are shared or endorsed by UAB.
Be sure to recuse yourself from any discussion, selection, or negotiation of potential business relationships between an entity that you own, or an entity for which you are on the governing board or are an officer, and UAB. This includes non-profit and public entities. Influencing a decision for UAB to pay this organization for services can create potential state ethics law issues, which carry criminal penalties. Also, ensure you are not using UAB resources on behalf of this entity. Again, this presents state ethics law concerns. Instead, avoid comingling your role with regard to this entity and your UAB role, and if any use of UAB resources is anticipated, work with your fiscal officer who will specify, valuate, and secure payment for such use.
Heightened review processes exist for institutional conflict of interest if UAB or an institutional official holds an equity interest in a company that desires to conduct clinical human research at UAB. For more information, see UAB’s Institutional Conflict of Interest Policy or contact the University Compliance Office.
See also the Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship's Start-up Guide for UAB Employee Inventors and Entrepreneurs.
It is important to categorize activities properly so that employees and reviewers can identify appropriate treatment. Generally, professional public service activities do not require advance approval of supervisors. However, your school may have stricter requirements for approval of professional public service activities, so check with your dean’s level reviewer. If you are unsure as to how an activity is best categorized, err on the side of external activity and seek approval prior to performing the services.
If you are an investigator and you receive more than $5000 in remuneration from any single external entity during a 12-month period, you are required to submit a Notice of Professional Public Service Activity at UAB Electronic Forms. For example, if you are invited as a guest lecturer to talk about your scholarship and the University of Hawaii pays for your travel expenses (presumably a value greater than $5000), you will need to submit a Notice of Professional Public Service Activity. No advance approval is required by University policy or federal regulation, but you should check with your deans’ level reviewer to see if anything else might be necessary from the school’s perspective.
As part of one's institutional responsibilities or academic appointment, time away from UAB work to perform professional public service activities generally qualifies for professional leave.
Editorship activities should be evaluated carefully to determine whether they are more appropriate to conduct as an individual external activity or as an official UAB activity that is arranged for through University Contracts, especially if the activities require additional UAB resources, like administrative or secretarial support.
UAB employees should be aware of their responsibilities under UAB’s Authorship Policy. Ghostwriting is strictly prohibited. Consider using a disclosure or disclaimer slide in external activity presentations and publications that indicates you are not speaking on behalf of UAB and that you are presenting personal views, not those of the institution.
If you desire to assign a textbook you authored or receive royalties for a course you are teaching, contact your school’s curriculum committee. You must follow its process for approval prior to requiring students purchase it.
“One’s own time” is interpreted differently depending on the UAB employee’s status as either faculty or staff. For staff, this includes after regular work hours, weekends, holidays/personal holidays, and vacation. Full-time faculty’s own time includes those categories, as well as up to 20 days of “external activity leave” per calendar year, which allows them to rearrange work schedules to fulfill UAB work commitments in the remaining time.
Remember, activities categorized as professional public service activities may be eligible for professional leave, as they are considered to be official UAB activities or consistent within typical expectations of an academic appointment. Consult with your dean’s level reviewer to understand more closely the expectations for disclosure and performance of professional public service activities in your school. Some schools have stricter standards, especially if professional public service activities begin to encroach on other mission-critical work, like research and classroom instruction.
Always use the official leave system (eLAS) to account and obtain approval for time away. eLAS will track the number of external activity days and does not allow submission of requests for external activity leave beyond 20 days per calendar year. Contact HR to learn more about the eLAS system and reports that may be helpful for managers to monitor time away.
UAB providers do not have disclosure responsibilities to CMS under this law, but there are steps to being prepared when information is reported about you. See the Open Payments resource page available from the University Compliance Office.
Reports show an employee’s total portfolio of external activity request forms. If reviewers have questions or concerns about the cumulative amount of time spent engaged in external activities, not simply for one activity at a time, this information may be helpful to address potential conflicts of commitment. For information on accessing the database and running reports, see this instruction guide with screenshots [insert] for more information.
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Go to UAB Electronic Forms and login with your blazer id and password.
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Click on link entitled "External/Internal Activity Approval/Financial Interests Disclosure".
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Indicate the reason for your form submission is to request external activity approval.
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Complete the remaining form questions. Provide as much information as needed for reviewers to make an informed judgment as to whether the external activity meets institutional standards, including “when” you plan to perform the work – whether during evenings, on weekends, rearranging UAB work for external activities days, or on vacation – so that reviewers can anticipate whether or not an eLAS time off request may also be submitted.
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If you recognize you need more details about your external activity prior to submitting the form, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save.” You can come back to it on the “Saved Forms” tab on the UAB Electronic Forms website.
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Once full and complete, click “Submit” at the bottom of the form.
To modify an approved Request for External Activity Approval Form:
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Go to UAB Electronic Forms and login with your blazer id and password.
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From the UAB Electronic Forms website, go to the “History” tab and click on the icon beside the activity you wish to revise.
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When prompted, select the radio button to indicate your desire to make changes, and proceed to modify the information in the form.
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When all changes have been made, click “submit” at the bottom of the page. Once submitted, a modified form proceeds through the same review channels as an initial form, but it does not highlight to the reviewer the modified fields. Therefore, to speed the process, consider entering in the description field a note to reviewers about what has changed to ensure their attention is drawn to those specific items.