Conflict of Interest Policy

1. Ineligibility to receive grants

The following are not eligible to receive grants or funding from grants from the LEO Foundation:

• Employees of the LEO Group (including LEO Foundation, LEO Holding, and LEO Pharma).
• Members of the LEO Foundation Board of Trustees, their spouses/partners and children.

Members of the LEO Foundation’s evaluation committees may not receive grants or funding from grants that are subject to review by the committee on which they serve. However, members may:

• serve as unfunded collaborative partners or advisors on an application, in which case they are ineligible to assess the application (see article 2),
• be the main applicant or co-applicant on an application which is subject to review by another committee than the one they serve on,
• receive funding from an active grant if awarded prior to becoming a committee member.

2. Ineligibility to assess applications

Members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, committees, and external assessors may not participate in the assessment of an application where the reviewer has a personal, professional, or financial interest in the outcome of an application (i.e., a conflict of interest).

As examples, members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, committees, and external assessors are generally ineligible to assess applications from applicants with whom they have a family relationship, have co-published or in another way have had a scientific collaboration within the previous five years, or where the reviewer supervises or is managed (directly or indirectly) by the applicant.

3. Procedure in case of conflicts of interest

The following procedure applies in case of (potential) conflicts of interest:

• Committee members and external assessors shall notify the Foundation of any (potential) conflict of interest within 10 working days from receiving the application(s) to be assessed. Matters of potential conflict of interest are evaluated by the Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer who, based on this policy, determines the member/assessor’s eligibility.
• Members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees shall declare any (potential) conflicts of interest to the Board prior to the Board’s discussion and assessment of the relevant grant application(s). Matters of potential c onflict of interest are evaluated by the remaining Board members who based on this policy determine the member’s eligibility. The potentially conflicted Board member shall leave the meeting during this assessment.

An ineligible committee member, external assessor, or member of the Board of Trustees shall be prohibited from participating in the assessment of the relevant application(s). If an application is assessed at a committee or Board meeting, the ineligible member shall leave the meeting during the assessment.

All cases of breach of this policy shall be reported to the Chairmanship of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, and the evaluation of the application shall be repeated and processed by the relevant committee or board without the influence of the disqualified member.