Appearance of a conflict of interest
Appearance of a conflict of interest means that a reviewer or close relative or professional associate of the reviewer has a financial or other interest in an application or proposal that is known to the reviewer or the government official managing the review and would cause a reasonable person to question the reviewer's impartiality if he or she were to participate in the review; the government official managing the review (the Scientific Review Administrator or equivalent) will evaluate the appearance of a conflict of interest and determine, in accordance with this subpart, whether or not the interest would likely bias the reviewer's evaluation of the application or proposal.