Originally adopted by the Board of Directors on December 5, 1998; updated on June 10, 2003; and reviewed annually by the Board.
EERI affiliates who are in responsible charge of EERI activities (staff, Board of Directors, committee chairs, committee members, and contractors involved in decisions that result in financial remuneration) should not benefit financially in an unfair way, influence unfairly the outcome of a decision-making process, or take action that gives the appearance of financial advantage for themselves or for business and family associates. Business associates include employers, employees, partners, clients, and companies that the EERI affiliate has invested in. Family associates include spouses, significant others, parents, siblings, and offspring. EERI will avoid occasions in which there are real or apparent, unfair financial benefits accruing to the affiliate and his/her business and family associates.
When the Institute is responsible for allocating funds for projects, travel, honoraria, and other activities, written and publicly available criteria for selecting recipients will be prepared before applications are evaluated. Those chosen to decide on recipients must be able to make objective, unbiased decisions without conflicts of interest regarding the choice of recipients. Each EERI member participating in Institute activities is encouraged to consider his/her potential for conflict of interest, and to discuss such potential before decisions affecting financial allocations are made. Members with a conflict of interest should acknowledge the conflict and abstain from both deliberations and the vote pertaining to relevant resolutions affecting financial allocations.
In circumstances in which a conflict of interest is unclear to staff or other EERI affiliate, a judgment regarding the potential conflict will be made by the EERI Board of Directors, for which a record will be available in the minutes of the Board of Directors meeting.
The Board will review its Conflict of Interest policy during the first meeting of each new year for the benefit of new Board members. The Institute’s policy on Conflict of Interest will also be put on EERI’s website so that it will be widely available for public review.
