Handling Potential Conflicts of Interest
Scientific integrity and the credibility of the Academies’ Initiative ESYS require careful handling of conflicts of interest. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, ESYS incorporates diverse perspectives within its structural design.
In addition, possible conflicts of interest are identified at the start of all substantive activities and are carefully assessed by the ESYS Board of Directors when selecting individuals to participate in such activities. All potential conflicts of interest are disclosed by everyone involved. Through these measures, ESYS commits itself to the standards of good scientific practice.
Structural Requirements
The work of ESYS is based on voluntary engagement by experts from science, society, and business. For all experts, a certain degree of bias toward their own research or area of expertise is usually unavoidable. This implies that work within ESYS can hardly proceed entirely without potential conflicts of interest. However, the interdiscplinary and cross-institutional structure of ESYS ensures diverse perspectives and prevents one-sided influence.
The ESYS Board of Trustees and the ESYS Board of Directors as well as the working group chairs, in case work takes place within working groups, include researchers from various disciplines and institutions. The ESYS working groups are likewise interdisciplinary and bring together professionals from academia, companies, and other organisations. This diversity ensures that individual interests cannot dominate and that different viewpoints are balanced against one another.
In addition, all ESYS publications are subject to a multi-stage quality assurance process. The diversity of perspectives embedded in ESYS is intended to prevent not only financial but also political and other forms of undue influence.
Self-Disclosure
At the beginning of each substantive ESYS activity, it is verified whether any bias may be present. All members of a working group and authors of a publication must complete a self-disclosure form regarding any potential conflicts of interest before starting their work. This also applies to members of the ESYS Board of Directors.
The forms are reviewed confidentially by the ESYS Headquarters, and the results are presented to the entire ESYS Board of Directors. In addition, the results of the self-disclosure forms are presented to the ESYS Board of Trustees at its next meeting. All self-disclosure forms are archived in compliance with data protection regulations.
Possible reasons for bias may exist, for example, if a person or their relatives*
- would directly benefit financially from ESYS’s advisory activities, e.g., through participation in a start-up or company;
- is currently or was in the past employed for remuneration by, or held a governing position in, a company for which ESYS’s advisory activities could have economic significance;
- has received personal, financial, or non-material benefits from a third party, association, society, institution, or company that could be affected by ESYS’s advisory work;
- could gain a direct advantage or suffer a direct disadvantage (e.g., regarding ongoing patent procedures or project proposals submitted to third parties) as a result of ESYS’s advisory activities;
- receives or could receive current or prospective research funding from sources with a particular interest in a specific ESYS advisory outcome;
- receives or could receive current or prospective research funding or other benefits that are so closely related in content to ESYS’s advisory work that they could raise concerns about potential bias;
- actively participates in an association, society, institution, political party, or company that would be directly affected by the statements made in an ESYS position paper;
*Under this regulation, relatives are defined as direct-line relatives and in-laws, spouses, life partners, siblings, spouses, or life partners of siblings, as well as siblings of spouses or life partners.
Careful Assessment by the ESYS Board of Directors
Based on the known potential conflicts of interest, the ESYS Board of Directors carefully considers whether individuals should participate in substantive activities such as a working group member, working group chair, author of a publication, or in any other function. Particular care is taken in the case of working group chairs or lead authors of ESYS publications.
It should be noted that, for ESYS, diversity of perspectives as well as the inclusion of practical expertise and representatives from industry are often important in order to develop feasible and applicable courses of action. Therefore, working group membership or authorship within ESYS is possible even when potential reasons for bias exist. However, the ESYS Board of Directors ensures through broad representation that individual interests cannot prevail.
Transparency
In ESYS publications, significant reasons for bias are disclosed transparently by all working group members and authors. Furthermore, the ESYS Board of Directors, together with the ESYS Headquarters, evaluates whether any potential reasons for bias exist and, if so, which should be disclosed.
Sanctions
If biases are identified that were not previously disclosed in the self-disclosure process, the ESYS Board of Directors decides on appropriate actions, which may include exclusion from ESYS activities. If a member of the Board of Directors conceals reasons for bias, the ESYS Board of Trustees decides on the possible consequences.
Questions and comments regarding good scientific practice, scientific integrity, or possible conflicts of interest may be directed to the members of the ESYS Board of Directors as well as to the ombudspersons of acatech, Leopoldina (German only), and the Union of Academies.
Additional ombudspersons can be found here:
