Consulting

This Policy applies to exempt staff and faculty members with appointments of 50% full-time equivalent (FTE) or greater whose appointments are funded at least in part by the State of Maryland. These University Employees are eligible to engage in Consulting and their activities must align with this Policy.

Graduate Students are not subject to this Policy, and they may engage in Consulting. However, Graduate Students who work on Sponsored Projects are subject to the COI/COC Policy and must submit a Disclosure on their Consulting activities in accordance with the provisions in the COI/COC Policy and/or Funding Agency requirements for Sponsored Projects.

Non-exempt staff, regardless of FTE, and University Employees with FTEs of less than 50% are not subject to this Policy.

Banking of Consulting days is allowed for both full-time and part-time University Employees with prior approval of the University Employee’s Unit Head. Please see the Consulting Policy for additional information on banking.

Activities that benefit UMD are typically considered professional service and are not considered Consulting. When in doubt, please contact inTERP@umd.edu for assistance.

Moonlighting by University employees is not considered Consulting and is generally excluded from the Consulting Policy. However, any moonlighting activities performed for foreign entities—including foreign universities, governments, or companies—must be disclosed to the University to comply with federal regulations.

The Consulting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) seeks to remind University Employees of their compliance obligations to the University, USM, and the Maryland SEC. All University Employees engaging in Consulting must sign the Consulting MOU, abide by its specifications, and share the Consulting MOU with the External Entity with which they are engaged. The MOU is part of the inTERP disclosure and can be found here. This is now a one and done - it can be downloaded as needed.

Create an entity for the consulting

Answer the questions regarding the entity

Scroll down to the Activity Relationship Information box

Click “Paid or Unpaid Activity" and then "Consulting".

Scroll down and answer the Consulting-specific questions

Click the link to the MOU - this will take you to a new window

Read/sign the MOU

Go back to your disclosure

Select “Yes” that you have read/signed the MOU and type in your name for “Completed MOU Attestation Link” and select your name to link the MOU to your disclosure

Faculty may undertake Consulting up to one (1) day per calendar week (equivalent to 8 hours), across all consultancy agreements, during the period for which they provide the service, so long as the faculty member is appropriately meeting all University obligations as determined through unit-level reviews, and with the approval of their Unit Head.