INTERNAL REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES OF
THE BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES GROUP AND THE UNIVERSITY
HOSPITALS LEUVEN
Version: 2015-01-27
INTERNAL REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES OF THE BIOMEDICAL
SCIENCES GROUP AND THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS LEUVEN...................................................... 1
1. To whom do these regulations apply? ............................................................................................. 1
2. Definitions ........................................................................................................................................ 2
a. Activities requiring professional expertise ....................................................................................... 2
b. Activities not requiring professional expertise ................................................................................ 2
c. Incompatible activities ..................................................................................................................... 2
3. Provisions ........................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
a. Activities requiring professional expertise performed via the institution ....................................... 3
b. Activities requiring professional expertise as a private individual .................................................. 3
4. Application round ............................................................................................................................ 4
a. Annual application round ................................................................................................................. 4
b. Separate applications....................................................................................................................... 4
c. Communication ................................................................................................................................ 5
5. Further clarification regarding incompatible activities .................................................................... 5
6. Legal and regulatory basis ............................................................................................................... 6
1. To whom do these regulations apply?
These regulations apply to the following staff members:
- Senior Academic Staff (ZAP) and Assistant Academic Staff (AAP) members with a full-time
appointment at the legal entity of KU Leuven;
- ZAP and AAP members with at least a 50% appointment at the legal entity of KU Leuven;
- Staff members with a contractual obligation to the University Hospitals Leuven as Medical Staff
Member (VMS or EMS) either with or without an academic appointment1. It should be
remembered that medical staff members engage in an clinical practice exclusively at the
University Hospitals Leuven. Exceptions must be proposed by the Management Committee
and approved by the Executive Board.
- Staff members with at least a 50% contractual obligation to the University Hospitals Leuven
other than VMS combined with an academic appointment.
PhD students must remember that they are not permitted to perform any professional activities that
are related to their doctoral research. The Executive Committee may authorise other activities that fall
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FMS = full-time medical staff (at least 80%); SMS = simple medical staff (staff members with an appointment less than 80%
who engage in an exclusive clinical activity at University Hospitals Leuven).
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outside the scope of doctoral research on the condition that these activities do not compromise the
full-time nature of the doctoral research (Internal Regulations on PhD Students, Article 11,
https://admin.kuleuven.be/personeel/intranet/regelgeving/reglement_doctoraatsbeurzen).
2. Definitions
a. Activities requiring professional expertise
The staff members indicated above are free to place their professional expertise and skills at the
service of third parties. In the event that a staff member performs activities requiring professional
expertise for third parties, he/she must determine whether these activities are being performed via
the institution or in one’s capacity as a private individual. In case of the latter, i.e. the activities
requiring professional expertise are performed in one’s capacity as a private individual, these activities
are considered to be outside activities.
Medical staff members (VMS and EMS) engage in an clinical practice exclusively at the University
Hospitals Leuven. Exceptions must be proposed by the Management Committee and approved by the
Executive Board.
The time commitment of activities requiring professional expertise that are performed for third parties
must be compatible with the person’s professional activities: for a full-time staff member, the time
devoted to activities requiring professional expertise that are performed for third parties may not
exceed two half-days per week. For VMS and EMS members, the time devoted to activities requiring
professional expertise that are performed for third parties may not exceed 10 working days per year.
For part-time employment, the time devoted to these activities is adjusted based on the percentage
of the appointment.
b. Activities not requiring professional expertise
Activities not requiring professional expertise (such as membership in a cultural association, sports
club, etc.) are performed as a private individual and as such fall within the scope of the private life of
staff members. It goes without saying that the time devoted to these activities may not impact the fulltime availability of a staff member2. As long as this requirement is met, no application needs to be
submitted for the approval of these outside activities.
c. Incompatible activities
Certain activities are presumed to require a time commitment of more than two half-days per week.
These involve holding political offices, the practice of a liberal or other self-employed profession, or
the position of business manager or managing director of a civil or commercial enterprise. There are
specific principles that apply to these activities (see Section 5).
3. Conditions
Special provisions apply to the activities to be differentiated from one another:
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The full time as based on the appointment percentage.
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a. Activities requiring professional expertise performed via the
institution
In principle, the activities listed below must always be performed via the institution:
- Activities whereby the staff member maintains a conflict of interest between this activity and
his/her engagement in a professional activity at the legal entity of KU Leuven;
- Activities whereby patient information and patient materials are used;
- Activities that make use of the staff, students, infrastructure or services of KU Leuven;
- Activities that are related to intellectual rights which are the property of, or which have been
created at, KU Leuven;
- Membership in the board of directors of a different legal entity that is under assignment to
the institution;
- Employment at the Flemish Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB).
If a contract is requested for these activities, it will be drawn up by Leuven R&D or the University
Hospitals Leuven according to the provisions set forth in the document titled “Division of Tasks”
(document containing agreements between Leuven R&D and the University Hospitals Leuven-CTC
LINK). This contract governs the use of the institution’s staff, infrastructure and services and includes
provisions concerning the property rights to inventions and the copyrights to works.
b. Activities requiring professional expertise as a private individual
When a contract is requested for these activities, the staff member will conclude it with the contracting
party in his/her own name and at his/her own expense. There must be no ambiguity regarding the fact
that KU Leuven as a legal entity is not associated with this contract.
The staff member is the owner of the income derived from these outside activities and is also liable
for the associated tax and social obligations.
Expenditures and costs incurred within the scope of these activities must be excluded from the funding
streams of KU Leuven. An exception to this applies to speaking fees for VMS and EMS members. These
speaking fees can be received on a D credit in the University Hospitals Leuven.
No use may be made of the university’s staff, students, infrastructure or services for outside activities.
Property rights to inventions that staff members create or have created within the scope of their
research may not be transferred to a third party via an outside activity.
However, because copyrights to works that one creates as a staff member do not belong to KU Leuven,
a private consulting contract may contain provisions concerning the transfer of these rights. By the
same token, author agreements with publishers must also be concluded in one’s own name and at
one’s own expense.
Conflicts of interest must always be avoided. This applies to situations in which one, as an academic
specialist, takes on advisory and policy functions inside and outside the institution (governmental
advisory boards inside and outside Belgium, ad-hoc requests for advice from such governments,
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evaluations of project requests, etc.) and also to the endorsement of scientific publications (these
journals usually enforce conflict of interest statements in these cases).
4. Application round
a. Annual application round
Each year in April, relevant staff members (see Section 1) receive an e-mail from the KU Leuven’s HR
Department asking them to account for the outside activities that they wish to perform during the
coming academic year. All activities requiring professional expertise as a private individual (see Section
2.a) must be reported. Staff members who are not planning to perform any activities requiring
professional expertise must also communicate this explicitly. Activities not requiring professional
expertise (see Section 2.b) must be reported as soon as the overall time devoted to these activities
poses a threat to their full-time availability. Applying for, confirming or cancelling these activities can
be done via the KU Loket [Central login] (Personeel [Staff] > Personeelsdossier [Staff file] > Mijn
gegevens [My data] > Curriculum vitae).
Applicants are asked to indicate where and on which days of the week these activities are performed.
Medical staff members must indicate the number of days per year that the outside activities will be
performed.
All applications are submitted to the relevant department board for an opinion. Applications from staff
members of the University Hospitals are also submitted for an opinion either to their medical
department head. Applications from department chairs are submitted directly to the Executive
Committee. Applications from the medical department heads are submitted for an opinion to the
medical director. . The Executive Committee takes this opinion into account and either approves or
denies permission for the requested activity.
The Board of Governors is authorised to approve the activities of the ZAP-members of the Executive
Committee. The Executive Board of the University Hospitals is authorised to approve the activities of
the members of the hospital’s Management Committee. The vice-rector puts the applications on the
agenda of the Executive Board of the University Hospitals.
The list of outside activities and their corresponding opinions and decisions is submitted to the Special
Academic Council each year. A list of names, including the outside activities that have been approved,
is made public within the university.
b. Ad hoc requests
Staff members who wish to apply for an activity requiring professional expertise for the current
academic year can do so by sending a letter to the vice-rector and a copy of this letter to the HR adviser,
each enclosed with the opinion of the department chair and if relevant the medical department head.
Applications from department chairs are submitted directly to the Executive Committee. Applications
from the medical department heads are submitted for an opinion to the medical director. The
Executive Committee takes this opinion into account and either approves or denies permission for the
requested activity.
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These applications from the staff of University Hospitals are likewise submitted to the applicant’s
medical department head for an opinion or, when the applicant him/herself is a department head, to
the medical director of the University Hospitals Leuven.
As with the annual application round, the applicant must indicate where and on which days of the
week the activities will be performed. Medical staff members must indicate the number of days per
year that the outside activities will be performed.
c. Communication
The decision of the Executive Committee will be communicated to the applicant. If needed, a letter
will be drawn up (see below) that can be used in the event that declarations regarding these activities
must be made to third parties.
5. Further clarification regarding incompatible activities
 Political offices
In principle, the following political offices are incompatible with a full-time university position because
these offices are technically assumed by law to require a commitment of more than two half-days per
week: “membership in the European or Belgian Parliament, in a Belgian Community or Regional
Council, in the Commission of the European Communities, in a government at the Belgian National
(federal), Community or Regional level; the offices of governor, vice-governor, deputy, mayor, Mayor
or public welfare centre chair in a municipality with over 50,000 inhabitants” (Order of the Flemish
Government of 5 May 1993, Article 1).
The policy maintained by KU Leuven is that the appointment of a full-time ZAP or AAP member who
gains and wishes to serve in a legislative political office (as a member of the European or Belgian
Parliament or a Belgian Community or Regional parliament) will be reduced to a full-time position. In
this case, the ZAP or AAP appointment can amount to no more than a 50% appointment (decision of
the Board of Governors of 22 June 2010).
Decisions on the potential combination of an ZAP or AAP appointment with other political offices listed
above will be made on an ad-hoc basis. In certain specific cases, the university board has the option of
determining that one of these offices will not require a commitment of more than two half-days per
week and may therefore be combined with a full-time academic position.
To obtain authorisation to combine political offices not appearing in the above list with a full-time
university position, this exception procedure can be bypassed by means of publication in the Belgian
Official Journal. The fundamental criterion that applies in this case is the person’s full-time availability
for his/her university job.
 Self-employed activities
It is technically assumed by law that the “the practice of a liberal or other self-employed profession or
the position of business manager or managing director of a civil or commercial enterprise” requires a
commitment of more than two half-days per week and cannot be combined with a full-time university
position.
This provision relates to the following self-employed activities:
- Self-employed professional activities performed with some degree of regularity;
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All positions, including unpaid positions, of business manager or managing director of
enterprises.
Even though these activities are officially considered to be incompatible with a full-time university
position, the university board does, in specific cases, have the authority to determine that one of these
self-employed activities does not exceed a time commitment of two half-days per week. This means
that - in these specific cases - the activity can be combined with a full-time academic position.
The law explicitly states that decisions such as these to grant an exception can only be made after
examining the person’s availability to the university, which must be guaranteed to be full-time.
Purely occasional activities such as self-employed work or directorships other than those of business
manager or managing director - even when these result in a tax status of self-employed as a secondary
occupation and/or are subject to social security for self-employed workers - are not deemed to be one
of these “officially incompatible” outside activities.
6. Legal and regulatory basis
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Decree on Universities of 12 June 1991, Articles 74 through 77 (as amended by the Decrees of
27 January 1993, 18 May 1999 and 20 April 2001); currently Articles V.12 - V.15 of the Codex
of Higher Education.
Order of the Flemish Government of 5 May 1993.
Academic Staff Regulations, Articles 8 and 9.
Decree of 22 February 1995 related to scientific or social services; currently Articles IV.71 IV.77 of the Codex of Higher Education.
Internal regulations on scientific or social services (in force since 1 January 2008).
Internal regulations on the participation in, and the relationships of the university with, nonprofits or other legal entities (as approved by the Board of Governors meeting of 19 December
2006).
Decisions by the Board of Governors meetings of 22 June 2010 (on holding political offices as
an outside activity) and 21 September 2010 (on a change to decision-making powers pursuant
to the new statutory regulations).
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