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Grants/Commercial Funding

There are two kinds of commercial funding in CME:

Grants/In-Kind Donations

• These arrangements require a Letter of Agreement that includes the University Office of Grants and Contracts as a signing party. The Letter of Agreement MUST be fully signed and executed by all parties prior to the start date of the educational activity.
• Pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers and other companies involved in healthcare frequently provide financial support for educational activities that are not tied to sales or marketing processes. These grants can be used for medical education, research or quality improvement activities.
• Grants are also potentially available from foundations, medical societies or other non-profit organizations.
• In most cases OCME recommends submitting a request for a grant for general support, which would cover the entire conference, and not to cover a specific session. These grant requests are easier to build and submit, and don’t need to be as detailed or specific as requesting a grant to support an individual session topic at a conference. Those more specific grants require more work in terms of needs assessments, identifying gaps, building budgets, and measuring outcomes.
• Grantors (typically pharmaceutical/device companies) have reporting requirements that the grantee must meet, usually including a budget reconciliation, an interim progress report, and a final outcomes report. The details of these reports will be outlined in the Letter of Agreement.
• A needs assessment is generally required for an educational grant proposal. Please see this document for more information about needs assessments.
• We must follow the ACCME’s guidelines for this type of commercial support: .
• The grant submission process usually begins about 6 months before a CME conference, and our office needs to be aware of any potential grants before conference organizers make arrangements so that the University’s required procedures are followed. Most pharmaceutical and medical device companies set a deadline date for submission at 60 days prior to the CME activity start date, and it is recommended to submit an educational grant request at least 90 days prior to the activity start date to allow sufficient review time.

Commercial Promotion/Ancillary Activities/Exhibits

• Organizations pay for exhibit space or fund a meal, for example, and learners choose whether to attend these non-CME marketing activities that are held in conjunction with the CME conference but are separated from the CME content.
• The University Office of Grants and Contracts does not have to sign the agreement for this model, but our CME office needs to be aware of the support before it is finalized so that we can ensure compliance.
• The submission process to exhibitors/sponsors is much simpler than the grant application process.
• We must follow the ACCME’s guidelines for this kind of commercial support: .

Please refer to OCME’s Guidelines for Accredited Continuing Medical Â鶹´«Ã½¸ßÇå for more information, and please contact us with any questions at omecme@cuanschutz.edu or 303-724-3552.