Professional Staff and Faculty Consultancy and Research
Policy
1. External Activities for Consultancy and Research
UD encourages staff and faculty to stay updated with their area of experience, which might involve engaging with industry and government to enable knowledge expansion and sharing. This involvement can contribute to the employee’s motivation and engagement with UD. Such projects can be undertaken through UD or at private capacity considering the following conditions:
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UD staff and faculty should always assign UD duties as their primary responsibility. Their commitment to their job should always be placed first.
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UD does not prohibit any staff/ faculty from taking extra responsibility outside the working hours (paid or unpaid).
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Any extra responsibility taken by UD staff/faculty should not impose any conflict of interest between UD and UD employee interest.
2. Types of External Activities
2.1 UD Awarded Projects
These projects are awarded to UD and assigned to UD staff and/or faculty whose experience and education match the awarded job requirements. This type of project is administered through IERCEFZ which can be carried out during UD working hours.
2.2 Awarded Grants/ Projects from the Industry and Government
Paid private research and consultancy grants awarded to the staff/ faculty due to their experience can be conducted during UD working hours. This grant distribution will be subject to the guidelines discussed in UD Research Support Policy R 4.1.
2.3 Private Research and Consultancy Projects
UD full time staff and faculty may at private capacity accept paid projects related to their expertise without UD involvement or prior approval.
3. Exceptions
This policy doesn’t grant UD faculty and staff to following:
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UD faculty working as part-time do not need to have UD prior permission to work for other institutes.
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UD doesn’t allow staff and faculty to get paid by UD students.
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UD faculty should not, at a sole capacity, represent UD directly or indirectly for a paid position. This includes, but not limited to sitting on regulatory board(s) that can create a conflict of interest with UD.
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Preparing and co-authoring intellectual properties or conducting an examination with an external party.
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Radio or meeting without UD prior acknowledgement.
4. Buy Out Time for Research and Consultancy Projects
A faculty can request to buy out a minimum of one and maximum of two courses within one semester (15 weeks) if they wish to perform external research and consultancy projects. This request will result in compensation made to UD for a faculty replacement as a result. It is important to have full transparency between the faculty and UD in such cases, to ensure mutual benefits among UD and the faculty.
The faculty must request courses buy-out before the semester starts and obtain the necessary approvals from the Dean, VPAA and UD President before accepting the external projects. The application should clarify how the current workload (both academic and/or administrative) will be managed (including administrative assignments, thesis supervision and teaching). If UD facilities and/or resources will be used for the external project, the faculty should pay for the overhead cost.
Upon granting the faculty the approval to conduct the external research project, a non-objection letter will be issued to the faculty and the sponsoring organization to carry forward the project.
5. Disclosure
All UD faculty and staff must explicitly disclose any potential or existing conflict of interest in matters related to research and consultancy. Any breach to report or abide by the guidelines set in this policy will result in corrective action consistent with UD faculty and staff disciplinary policy.