Online activities and interests reporting system coming this fall

In an effort to streamline, modernize and standardize the way faculty and staff report their activities and financial interests, the University of Florida will introduce UFOLIO, a new online activities and interests reporting system, beginning this fall. UFOLIO (UF Online Interests Organizer) will replace paper forms, saving faculty and staff time by providing a simpler and easier format for reporting.

In addition to offering a more intuitive way of reporting, UFOLIO will provide a standardized framework for the documentation of activities and interests. This consistency will help protect faculty and staff as well as the university by ensuring reporting requirements and processes for review and approval meet the highest ethical standards.

“One of the new realities faced by every major research university is competing interests for our ideas, our technologies and our talent, sometimes in the form of activities that are offered outside of UF employment,” said President Kent Fuchs in his Aug. 22 State of the University address. “I ask that every employee of UF be even more conscientious in how you report all outside activities. I urge you to report and secure approval for all outside activities before entering into any external agreements.”

The new system will initially be introduced to a limited number of departments in September. Other areas of the university will follow with the goal of onboarding the full UF community by the spring of 2020. This initial introduction is designed to close any gaps in reporting as quickly and efficiently as possible and represents the first phase of a larger plan to leverage data from UFOLIO as the authoritative source for analytics and to support compliance with Research Conflict of Interest regulations.

In its introductory phase, UFOLIO will replace the current Disclosure of Outside Activities and Interests paper form and any other local tools that have been developed. A team under the guidance of the UF Compliance Office has been established to develop this new system and the associated processes and to provide support for faculty and staff. UF deans have also designated individuals to serve as advisors to the project team and liaisons to their colleges.

To learn more about UFOLIO, please visit the UF Compliance website at compliance.ufl.edu/ufolio. Questions may also be directed to the project team at ufolio-help@ufl.edu.