Professor Willie Donnelly:

It was managed and it was managed highly effectively. Our policy has been reviewed on three occasions by international experts, who have consistently said the policies are the best practice internationally. We have managed conflict of interest. There is no single record that states WIT did not manage conflict of interest. In all cases we managed conflict of interest.

Of course, it is difficult, but if one has the right structures in place, if one is in a mature and open organisation, and if one is an organisation where people in that organisation are entitled and encouraged to ask questions and where people are entitled to have access to information, there is a very open environment. I will give an example. If one looks at FeedHenry, when the external services officer who reports to me felt conflicted, I was removed from the process so that she could do her job.

When the technology officer had a position that differed from me - I can give an example because I think it is important - as VP of research and also as the PI and the director of TSSG, I made a proposal for a particular type of consultancy that my research group should be involved in. This is recorded in the minutes of the commercialisation committee. I made it to commercialisation committee. The tech transfer officer disagreed with me; it is in the minutes. I absented myself from the meeting. I came back in. The commercialisation committee and the tech transfer officer told me that they were not agreeable to my proposal. The proposal was withdrawn.