The NIH Blue Ribbon Panel on Conflict of Interest Policies will meet for the first time on March 1st and 2nd on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The charge of the Panel is to review and make recommendations for improving the existing rules and procedures under which NIH currently operates regarding real and apparent financial conflict of interest of NIH staff and requirements and policies for the reporting of NIH staff's financial interests. The Panel is a working group of the Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD), NIH. The Panel will provide recommendations to the ACD for deliberation and final recommendations to the Director. The panel is co-chaired by Bruce Alberts, Ph.D., President of the National Academy of Sciences, and Norman R. Augustine, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Any person wishing to make a presentation to the panel during the public comment session should notify Charlene French, Office of Science Policy, National Institutes of Health, Building 1, Room 103, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, telephone 301-496-2122 or by e-mail: blueribbonpanel@mail.nih.gov.

The Conflict of Interest Information and Resources web site will be available on March 1st at http://www.nih.gov/about/ethics_COI.htm.

The NIH is comprised of the Office of the Director and 27 Institutes and Centers. The Office of the Director is the central office at NIH, and is responsible for setting policy for NIH and for planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all the NIH components. The NIH is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.