Code of Conduct Governing Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships, and Funding

Introduction

This concerns:

• assessing nominations for awards and applications for financial contributions from funds, and deciding whether to allocate them; 
• assessing nominations for membership of the Academy, the Young Academy, and the Academy of Arts.

This Code of Conduct does not apply to advisory committees for scientific advisory reports, for which the Code to Prevent Improper Influence due to Conflicting Interests [Code ter voorkoming van oneigenlijke beïnvloeding door belangenverstrengeling] (January 2012) applies. 

The basic principle is for the Academy to prevent actual conflicts of interest and also the appearance thereof (referred to hereinafter as “conflicts of interest”). Boards, juries, and committees of the Academy are themselves responsible for this, with the Chair of a board, jury, or committee having final responsibility, assisted by the Academy Bureau (Executive Secretary and, if necessary, a staff member of the legal affairs department). 

The following rules are not intended as an all-encompassing set of regulations covering all situations. Where necessary, those concerned must act in the spirit of the rules. Ultimately, this means that the responsible Chair will determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether there is any involvement in a nomination or application and to what extent, what this involvement entails as regards membership of a board, jury, or committee, and whether perhaps neutralising measures will suffice. 

Categories of Conflicting Interests

Involvement: 

1. being a nominator/(co-)nominator or applicant/(co-)applicant; 
2. being a signatory/co-signatory to a nomination or application; 
3. being a supervisor, project leader, or adviser to a nominee or applicant (or to such person’s project), or otherwise collaborating on a nominee's or applicant's project; 
4. providing a letter of recommendation, declaration of adherence, or statement of support for a nomination or application; 
5. being an executive (dean, institute director, head of a capacity group, member of the Supervisory Board) of an organisation or organisation unit of a nominee or applicant; 
6. being a staff member of an organisation unit (for example department, research school) or the same organisation (if it has no units) of the nominee or applicant and publishing in the same subject area as a nominee or applicant; 
7. having supervised a nominee or applicant in a different phase (guideline: less than five (5) years ago) and/or having published or still publishing jointly (guideline: less than three (3) years ago); 
8. having a family relationship in the first, second, or third degree with a nominee or applicant; 
9. maintaining the same household and/or being the spouse or other partner of a nominee or applicant. 

Bias: 

1. being biased regarding a specific nomination or application and therefore assessing that application more negatively or positively than would be the case without that bias;
2. being involved in a nomination or application that has significant overlap with another nomination or application. 

Rules of Conduct

1. Boards, juries, and committees of the Academy are required to comply with the Code of Conduct Governing Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships, and Funding. As soon as possible after being appointed, members of one of these bodies must sign the Form regarding Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships, and Funding, declaring that they will observe the Code of Conduct, and return it to the Executive Secretary. The Executive Secretary will retain the signed form in the central archive. 
2. Members of boards, juries, and committees may not submit/(co-)submit or sign/(co-)sign nominations or applications themselves (categories 1a and 1b).
3. Members of boards, juries, and committees involved in one or more nominations or applications according to categories 1c to 1i and 2 may not participate in the assessment and decision-making on the relevant nomination or application. If they are so involved, they must leave the meeting environment temporarily, with this being recorded in the minutes.
4. Members of boards, juries, and committees must not provide information about the factual course of events to stakeholders or other parties, either during or after the assessment process.
5. Referees who are asked to render an independent opinion on a nomination or application must receive the following request:
   If you agree to act as a referee regarding said nomination/application, the Academy will assume that it can consider you to be an independent expert regarding that nomination/application as referred to in the Academy's Code of Conduct Governing Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships, and Funding. If that is not the case or if you have any doubts about this, please notify the Executive Secretary as soon as possible.
6. The Academy Bureau is constantly vigilant as to where conflicts of interest may arise. Where the work of a board, jury, or committee is concerned, the Academy Bureau acts in close cooperation with the Chair of that board, jury, or committee. 
7. Observers from external organisations are not permitted to attend meetings of boards, juries, or committees that are held for the purpose of allocating awards, memberships, and funding.   

Exception clausule

Only after consultation with a staff member of the Academy's legal affairs department may a board, jury, or committee deviate from rules of conduct 2 or 3. Final responsibility regarding application of the neutralising measures listed below lies with the Chair of the relevant board, jury, or committee. The Academy cannot therefore apply the escape clause to the Chair of a board, jury, or committee itself.

Examples of neutralising measures are: 

• a (temporary) increase in the number of members of the board, jury, or committee; 
• an explicit statement from all non-involved members of the board, jury, or committee that, despite the involvement that has been determined, they are willing to guarantee that the assessment process will be fair; 
• the obligatory imposition of an assessment process in which the final decision of the board, jury, or committee regarding every proposal to be assessed is arrived at as follows: 
• the members of the board, jury, or committee will exchange arguments but arrive at their final (individual) judgment independently and anonymously;  
• if the board, jury, or committee consists of at least six (6) members, the (individual) final judgments with the lowest and highest rating will be excluded. The average of the other final judgments will constitute the final judgment of the board, jury, or committee. If the board, jury, or committee consists of fewer than six (6) members, the most divergent judgment will not be included. 

Procedure

• The following procedure must be followed for every award, membership, or funding.
• With their letter of appointment, members of every committee must receive the Form regarding Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships, and Funding, which they must sign and return to the Executive Secretary as soon as possible. 
• After a member of a board, jury, or committee has received the nominations or applications from the Executive Secretary, the member must ascertain as soon as possible whether: 
• the member’s interests conflict (or potentially conflict) with one or more nominations or applications;
• a conflict of interest (or a potential conflict of interest) may arise with one or more nominations or applications. 

If that is the case, the member concerned must report this to the Executive Secretary immediately.

• Upon receiving such report, the Executive Secretary will:
• The Executive Secretary will submit the advice to the Chair of the relevant board, jury, or committee for approval and then provide feedback to the member who made the report. If it is the Chair themselves who is concerned, the Executive Secretary will communicate the advice to the Chair.
• All reports and advice will be tabled as the first item on the agenda at the decision-making meeting of the board, jury, or committee. The Executive Secretary will record the decisions in the minutes. 
• A member of a board, jury, or committee who has made such report may not participate in the board's, jury's or committee's discussion of that member’s report or in the board's, jury's or committee's decision-making on the matter.
• The board, jury, or committee concerned will deal with the report of a conflict of interest in the manner recommended by the Academy Bureau in the advice, unless there are compelling circumstances to deviate from that advice. The board, jury, or committee will confirm this at the meeting and the Executive Secretary will record this in the minutes. 
• prepare advice as to how the Chair should deal with the report according to the Code of Conduct;
• if said advice recommends deviating from rule of conduct 2 and/or 3 (application of the exception clause), a staff member of the legal affairs department of the Academy Bureau will be consulted.

The Academy Board adopted this Code of Conduct Governing Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships, and Funding on 13 February 2023. This Code of Conduct shall take effect on 1 March 2023 and replaces the Academy’s Code of Conduct Governing Conflicts of Interest for Awards, Memberships and Funding that was adopted by the KNAW Board on 18 May 2015.