It is the policy of the Institute that its officers, faculty, staff, and others acting on its behalf have the obligation to avoid ethical, legal, financial, or other conflicts of interest and to ensure that their activities and interests do not conflict with their obligations to the Institute or its welfare. In order to ensure effective administration and adherence to this policy, members and officers of the Corporation, Institute senior officers, members of the faculty, campus sponsored research staff, administrative staff and certain academic research staff must annually acknowledge in writing their knowledge of the policy, disclose their outside activities and interests, including financial interests, that might give rise to conflicts, and either affirm that they have no interest, direct or indirect, in conflict with the Institute's interest or identify any interests that have the potential for conflict.
MIT Policies and Procedures Section 4.4: Conflict of Interest
MIT Policies and Procedures Section 4.5: Outside Professional Activities
MIT Policies and Procedures Section 5.2: Sponsored Research Staff Appointments
MIT Policies and Procedures Section 5.3: Academic Research Staff Appointments
MIT Policies and Procedures Section 5.4: Reporting Outside Activities and Interests
MIT Policies and Procedures Section 6.1: Administrative Staff Appointments
In addition, federal agencies that support research, for example, the National Science Foundation and the Public Health Service, are concerned about conflicts of interest in federally funded research and have implemented regulations designed to cause institutions to identify and manage or eliminate potential conflicts of interest.