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External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP)

External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP) requests should be submitted into the online Activities, Interests, and Relationships (AIR) management system.

External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP) include any activity that:

  1. is not included within one’s University employment responsibilities;
  2. is performed for any entity, public or private, other than the University employer;
  3. is undertaken for compensation; and
  4. is based upon the professional knowledge, experience and abilities of the EHRA employee.

Please be aware, as determined by the Provost’s Office for EHRA Faculty, research is considered part of one’s Employment responsibilities and cannot be conducted as an EPAP.  See FAQs below.  As an additional guideline, in January 2022, the US Government Office of Science and Technology Policy provided a parameter that a paid activity that included or resulted in authorship was research.

For EHRA Non-Faculty, the proposed EPAP is compared against the job description.  The Office of Human Resources makes the final determination.

Additionally, External Professional Activities for Pay (EPAP) are to be undertaken only if they do not:

  • Create a conflict of commitment by interfering with the obligation of the individual to carry out all primary University duties in a timely and effective manner, including disclosing any information about the EPAP activity as required; or
  • Create an unmanageable conflict of interest vis-a-vis the individual’s status as an employee of the University with the ability to perform their University duties; or
  • Involve any inappropriate use or exploitation of University resources; or
  • Make any use of the name of the University of North Carolina or any of its constituent institutions for any purpose other than professional identification such that it implies endorsement of an entity, technology or product; or
  • Claim, explicitly or implicitly, any University or institutional responsibility for the conduct or outcome of such activities.

Unit supervisors are generally the final EPAP reviewers for approval or denial.  In certain schools with Vendor Relations policies, those school require an additional review at the dean’s office level before a determination is made.  Also, if your activity is with an entity where you or the University has equity, additional review is review.  Please see the Conflict of Commitment policy for more information or review the routing flow chart below.

For more information on EPAP and related policies and regulations, please visit the University’s EPAP policy page or write to epap@unc.edu.

NOTE: Information on your EPAP hours may be viewed via your AIR profile, available through the Activities, Interests, and Relationships (AIR) management system website.

EPAP Review Process

EPAP Review Process
EPAP Review Process (PDF Format)

Other Related Policies