Selection Committees

Managing Conflicts of Interest

SSHRC recognizes that real or perceived conflicts of interest can and do arise in the adjudication of grant and fellowship applications. SSHRC's position is that these situations must be managed in an open and transparent manner. Committee members are responsible for identifying and addressing real or apparent conflicts of interest in order to maintain the community's confidence and trust.

Except in the case of SSHRC’s programs of support for scholarly journals, a committee member is considered to be in a conflict of interest vis-à-vis an application if it is from a team that includes:

• a close friend;
• a relative;
• a research collaborator;
• an institutional colleague;
• a former thesis supervisor or mentor;
• a student previously under the member's supervision;
• a person with whom the member is involved in a dispute; and
• a person with whom the member is involved in a partnership.

In the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program, a committee member is also considered to be in a conflict of interest situation regarding an application if the project director is from the same university as the committee member.

In the Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences in Canada program, a committee member is considered to be in a conflict of interest situation if she or he has been invited to participate in the conference or workshop as a speaker.

In the Doctoral Awards and Postdoctoral Fellowships programs, a committee member is also considered to be in a conflict of interest situation vis-à-vis an application if it is from:

• a student whom he or she is supervising or has supervised; or
• a student for whom he or she has written a letter of appraisal.

In the Aid to Scholarly Journals program, committee members will be asked to declare whether an existing relationship between themselves and either the editor-in-chief or a member of the editorial board or a strongly held view of an applicant journal would prevent them from offering an unbiased assessment of the application. A member will also be said to be in conflict with an application if he or she has previously served on the editorial board of an applicant journal.

While the Council cannot anticipate all potential conflict of interest situations, SSHRC staff make every effort to avoid possible conflicts before assigning applications to committee members for review. It is the responsibility of members to declare any conflict of interest related to an application, and to inform SSHRC staff immediately of the conflict. It is the role of the program officer to advise the committee in ambiguous cases.

In adjudication meetings or teleconferences, a member declaring a conflict must withdraw from the room or conference call during the committee's discussion of the application in question. In cases where the chair of a committee withdraws because of a conflict of interest, the committee will designate an alternate chair for its review of the particular file(s).

A committee member who submits an application to the committee on which he or she is serving must withdraw from the committee in the year in which the application is submitted. However, the member may resume service on the committee in a subsequent year. In some strategic research grants programs, a committee member who appears on an application as a co-investigator or collaborator may continue to serve on the committee, but must withdraw from the room during discussion of the application.