Guidelines for Determining Conflict of Interest (COI)
AG2PI follows COI guidelines from USDA to ensure that no one included in or affiliated with a proposal is involved in its review. This includes both in the initial review or in the steering group discussion of the proposal.
AG2PI considers a reviewer to have a conflict of interest with a particular proposer or proposal, based on USDA's conflict of interest policy, if they:
- collaborated or served as a coauthor with the applicant(s) during the past 3 years;
- are currently affiliated with the institution(s) of the applicant(s);
- are the spouse, child, sibling, parent, or partner of the applicant(s);
- mentored or been mentored by any investigator included in proposal;
- served as advisor to or advised by any investigator included in proposal;
- included in the COI list provided by within the proposal; or
- self-reports that a COI exists with the proposal.
Any member of the Seed Grant Steering Committee who has a COI on a proposal will be temporarily sequestered during discussion of that proposal and will have no input on whether it is awarded.
Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative (AG2PI) is funded by USDA-NIFA. See
Project Funding and
Other Related Project Funding
for more details
