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Acceptance of Professional Awards by NIH Employees


The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is proud of its employees' accomplishments and the recognition employees receive based on their work. However, NIH employees are subject to several statutes and regulations governing their ability to accept gifts associated with professional awards from organizations outside of the Federal Government. The purpose of this summary is to help outside organizations understand the NIH-specific and Government-wide regulations governing the acceptance of cash and other gifts associated with awards from outside organizations.

Government-wide Regulation

Before NIH staff can be permitted to accept any amount of cash or other item of value associated with an award from an outside organization, NIH must determine that the award:

NIH-Specific Requirement

NIH employees may not accept cash in any amount, or tangible gifts valued in excess of $200, associated with an award if the organization or person giving the award could be affected by decisions made by the employee, or any subordinate of the employee. The NIH employee may be permitted to accept the honor.

Documenting The Award is Part of An Established Program of Recognition

To obtain approval to accept an award, the recipient must submit documentation demonstrating the award meets the regulatory requirement, and may need to contact the awarding organization for assistance in doing so. Employees must provide:

  1. Information showing continuity of the award or award program. To meet this requirement, employees may submit:
    • a list of prior recipients of the specific award; OR
    • in the case of a first-time award,
      • information showing that the new award is being established as part of a pre-existing program under which awards have been given on a regular basis; or
      • a statement that the award program is funded to ensure its continuation on a regular basis by, for example, an unrestricted grant or contract, or noted in the organization’s bylaws or corporate minutes.
      Note: A pre-existing award program may consist of one or more awards.

  2. Written criteria or rationale used to select the award recipient from the pool of eligible candidates or nominees. This is the ‘measuring stick’ against which each nominee is compared, not the general criteria for nomination. Criteria could include:
    • Has consistently produced high impact research spanning his/her field.
    • Research made significant contributions to medical knowledge and public health.
    • Published articles reflect excellence and appear in high quality publications.
    • Recognized among peers for research capabilities, membership on review panels and editorial boards, special lectureships, and other institutional/national awards.
    • Maintains a position as a leader in his/her field.

    For poster awards, criteria might include:

    • Organization
    • Graphics
    • Oral presentation
    • Originality
    • Significance of research
    • Future plans
    • Rationale and logic of presentation

Additional Issues Associated with Specific Types of Awards

Awards With Lectures: For an award that involves a lecture, NIH staff may accept cash and other gifts associated with the award only if the award meets the requirements of the Government-wide regulation above, and an ethics official determines that cash and other gifts associated with the award are intended as prizes for meritorious public service or achievement, and not as compensation for services as speaker. The following issues will be addressed in that determination:

Awards of Cash: Awards which confer cash or cash equivalent require a second level of review to ensure that the award is part of an established program of recognition, as described below. Following review by the employee’s Deputy Ethics Counselor, an external committee will review each award to confirm that it meets the criteria. Following the second review, names of awards are added to the List of Approved Awards on the NIH Ethics Program web site.

Awards With Travel Payments: Document whether the travel award will be provided in-kind (the organization pays for the plane ticket), through reimbursement to the NIH (NIH pays the travel expenses and is reimbursed later by the organization), or through a cash stipend to cover travel or other expenses. If the award involves a cash stipend, it must receive a second level review as noted above.

Awards from Foreign Organizations: Foreign-sponsored awards require additional documentation and review to determine whether we must view the awarding organization as a foreign governmental entity, as defined in the law, and the possible affect of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution.

Determination of Permissibility

In addition to the above requirements, no real or apparent conflict of interest may exist between the award recipient and the awarding organization. For example, even if any gifts are valued at less than $200, there may be a conflict if the employee’s official duties involve decisions that will directly, or through the work of a subordinate, affect the organization offering the award.

Submitting an Award for Initial Review

A professional society may submit information about an award with associated gifts of cash or cash equivalent even before determining that an NIH employee may be a recipient. Please submit your request in writing, attach the required information as outlined above, and send it to the NIH Ethics Office, ATTN: Awards Coordinator, NIH Building 2, Room BE-04, MSC 0201, Bethesda, MD 20892-0201.

More Information

NIH Ethics Program Home Page

Revised: 5/14/08