NIH proposes tougher conflict-of-interest rules

Chronicle : Responding to Congressional criticism, the National Institutes of Health has released plans for making the grant-giving agency’s rules on financial conflicts of interest more stringent. Under the new rules, grant recipients, which include many biophysicists, must report payments from outside companies that exceed $5000 (the previous limit was $10 000). Other stipulations include requiring universities to provide detailed plans of how they handle conflicts of interest.