Terms and conditions

Proposals for Independent Medical Education (IME), Continuing Medical Education (CME) and International Fellowships with a global or regional focus, written in English language can be submitted to the Merck Global Medical Education & Academic Organization Relations Department using the Merck Global Grant System. The system is open worldwide, with the exception of the United States (US). For legal reasons, we require that proposals for medical education originating, or taking place in the US are submitted via the EMD Serono Grant System (grants.emdserono.com).

The Merck Global Medical Education & Academic Organization Relations Department will publish Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in certain disease areas on the Merck Global Grants website. A RFP does not commit Merck to award any grant, or to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a response to any third party submitting a proposal via the Merck Global Grants Portal. Merck reserves itself the right to accept or reject any or all applications received in response to any RFP. Merck may amend or terminate any RFP at any time and for any reason and has the right to not grant any of the submitted applications. Only the execution of an official Funding Agreement between the third party medical education provider and Merck will obligate both parties in accordance with the terms and conditions contained in the Funding Agreement.

Proposals in response to RFPs will only be considered, if they are limited to legitimate, balanced and scientific activities addressing identified gaps in disease management. Activities must be non-promotional, not related to a specific product and designed in an ethical and transparent manner, in compliance with all applicable laws, guidelines and codes, including those of Merck. In case of a conflict between different applicable rules, the more restrictive shall be applied.

Medical education funding shall never be granted to reward, or in exchange for, recommending, prescribing, dispensing, purchasing, supplying, selling, administering, referring, arranging for, or ordering Merck pharmaceutical products, or to induce recommending, prescribing, dispensing, purchasing, supplying, selling, administering, referring, arranging for, or ordering of Merck pharmaceutical products in the future.

Medical education funding shall be awarded in a manner that strictly separates decisions about providing financial support from commercial functions at Merck. Commercial personnel or agents shall not be involved in the review of, discussion of, or decision to award medical education funding. If commercial personnel are contacted regarding medical education funding, you will be referred to the Global Medical Education & Academic Organization Relations Department.

Medical education funding shall not be made to an individual.

Medical Education Funding must only be used to fund the specific activities described in the Funding Agreement, and funds that remain unused after completion of a funded activity shall be returned to Merck. Funds shall not be used for any other purposes, such as:

• Supporting a Funding Recipient’s operational purposes or reducing a Funding Recipient’s otherwise budgeted operational expense.
• Supporting the costs of honoraria, accommodation, transportation, meals, or other personal expenses of patients or non-faculty Healthcare Professionals attending or participating in the activity.
• Compensating patients or non-faculty Healthcare Professionals for time spent at an educational activity.

Merck may be recognized as a grantor, as appropriate, of the educational activity as long as the recognition is incidental to the primary purpose of the financial support, or is required to fulfill transparency requirements under the provider’s guidelines or under Applicable Laws and Codes. However, the Funding Recipient and Merck shall not separately promote, publicize, or otherwise take advantage of any opportunity for Merck to be identified as the sponsor of a meal (or other activities not related to education) at any educational event, or to be recognized at a particular level of support.

Merck shall not exercise any control over or influence the educational program’s organization, operation, content, materials, faculty, speakers, presenters, moderators, audience, or venue. The Funding Recipient is responsible for and shall maintain control over the identification of educational needs; determination of educational objectives; selection of content, faculty or other persons and organizations that will be in a position to control the content of the activity, educational methods, materials, target audience, and venue; evaluations; and presentation of content.

Merck shall not provide any advice or guidance to the Funding Recipient regarding the content or faculty for any activity supported by Medical Education Funding and shall not review or provide comments on slides, handouts, faculty selection, invitee lists, or other materials for the activity. In addition, Merck employees shall not serve as faculty for any activity supported by Medical Education Funding.

If required to fulfill transparency requirements under the provider’s guidelines or under Applicable Laws and Codes, Funding Recipients shall be required to disclose that financial support was received from Merck in invitations, brochures, advertisements, and other written communications related to the educational activity. In addition, if required to fulfill transparency requirements under the provider’s guidelines or under Applicable Laws and Codes, Funding Recipients shall be required to disclose the following information to attendees at the start of the educational activity: (1) Merck’s financial support for the activity; (2) any financial relationships between the Funding Recipients, faculty, presenters, moderators, or any other person who is in a position to control the content of the educational activity and Merck; and (3) whether any unapproved uses of Merck pharmaceutical products will be discussed.

Merck shall not provide Medical Education Funding for an activity if the grant requestor or an educational partner (including a parent or sister company) is conducting or could potentially conduct any Merck promotional activities, unless an adequate system to prevent improper influence is in place. If the grant requestor or educational partner has a parent or sister company conducting, or that could potentially conduct, promotional activities for Merck, all of the following criteria (which normally would reflect an adequate system) shall be satisfied in order for Merck to consider Medical Education Funding:

• Separate employees/contractors.
• Separate legal entity.
• Separation of promotional and independent medical education information and content, including, but not limited to, a prohibition on sharing substantive information, and the physical separation of functions and information technology safeguards, including, without limitation, restricted access to information.
• Compliance training and audits.
• Monitoring of compliance policies.

Medical education activities must be primarily dedicated, in both time and effort, to disseminating objective scientific and educational activity and discussion. The primary purpose of bringing attendees together shall be to further attendee knowledge on the topics being presented. The content and format of a medical education activity and related materials shall focus on improvements of quality in healthcare, not on a specific proprietary business interest of Merck. Any time devoted to meals shall be clearly subordinate to the time for education. All meals in connection with medical education activities must be modest.

The third party medical education provider shall:

• Ensure that there are outcome measures of education effectiveness expressed in terms of meeting the knowledge, competence, or performance objectives of the activity.
• Be able to make available a confirmation of participation, at a frequency and nature appropriate to regulatory requirements.
• Ensure that the learning objectives are specifically defined in terms of knowledge, competence, or performance, and are appropriate for the target audience.
• Ensure that the teaching methods used are appropriate to the stated learning objectives.
• Be able to show that the third party medical education provider has evaluated the quality of any previous education activities and has made improvements, where necessary.

Any commercial sponsorship or interest of the activity planner, presenters, or facilitators shall be disclosed to the provider/organizer and the participants. Any support, sponsorship, or funding by commercial healthcare organizations shall not influence the structure or content of the educational activity and shall be made clear to the participants.

Fellowship grants shall be used only for direct expenses associated with the Fellowship and shall not be used to subsidize routine business expenses. If the Fellowship position includes both billable services and research or teaching, the award shall be made so as to fund only the activities devoted to non-billable teaching or research. Fellowship grant funds shall not be used to pay the salary for any portion of a position that bills for services. Fellowship grant funds shall not be used to pay for attendance at a conference or meeting.

Medical Education Funding shall be publicly disclosed if required under the provider’s guidelines or under Applicable Laws and Codes, and may otherwise be publicly disclosed.

Following completion of educational activities, Merck requests the submission of a complete financial reconciliation.

To ensure transparency, all communications concerning this RFP must be exclusively addressed to and come from the Merck Global Medical Education & Academic Organization Relations Department.