Organizational Conflicts of Interest

With an increase in corporate mergers and acquisitions in recent years, the frequency and risk of potential conflicts has increased. To protect against organizational conflicts of interest, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has proactively implemented measures for avoiding unfair practices in the consideration of proposals and contracts.

These guidelines are designed to avoid and/or mitigate the three primary categories of organizational conflict as cited by the U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO): impaired objectivity, biased ground rules and unequal access to non-public information in competition for ONR systems engineering and technical assistance and/or support services.

The policy applies to science and technology program officers at ONR headquarters, regional offices (i.e., Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, San Diego and Seattle), PMR-51 and in ONR Global locations (i.e., London, Prague, Santiago, Singapore and Tokyo).

All prospective performers and potential support services partners are encouraged to review ONR's full conflict of interest policy, including definitions of various conflicts, as well as relevant GAO documents and court decisions pertaining to competitive interests.