The UC Outside Activity Tracking System (UC OATS) is a web-based application designed to streamline the reporting and monitoring of Outside Professional Activities (OPA) and identify potential instances of Conflict of Commitment. UC OATS empowers faculty to adhere to the University of California's Conflict of Commitment policies, as outlined in the Academic Personnel Manual (APM). Within UC OATS faculty can report outside professional activities, seek prior approval for activities, document effort and income associated with these activities, and fulfill their annual certification requirements.  

Click the video below for a short introduction and overview of UC OATS from Executive Vice Chancellor Simmons. UC OATS is part of UC San Diego's Enterprise Renewal System (ESR) and was rolled out in 2019.

Approval Forms & Routing

UC OATS collects information about outside professional activities and generates prior approval forms, as appropriate. Prior approval forms are routed through a defined review and approval workflow.

System Roles

UC OATS is a role-based system. System roles include faculty (general campus faculty, health science faculty, deans, full-time faculty administrators), reviewers, approvers, auditors, and system administrators.

Report & Track Effort/Earnings

UC OATS collects information about outside professional activities and generates prior approval forms, as appropriate. Prior approval forms are routed through a defined review and approval workflow.

Annual Certification

In UC OATS, faculty certify adherence to UCOP conflict of commitment policies in UC OATS. UC OATS generates an annual report of outside professional activities based on the collected information.

Reports

Reports are available for various compliance issues in real-time (e.g., annual certification reports, faculty exceeding time and/or earnings thresholds, involvement of students in OPA, etc.).

Faculty Education

UC OATS contains embedded educational components to facilitate faculty understanding of the policies, their role and responsibilities, and accurate reporting. To learn more about UC OATS visit the Training knowledge base.

Health Science Compensation Plan (HSCP) Payments

Reviewers can document and track payments due to the HSCP plan. Payments reflect in both the reviewer's and faculty's workspace.

Archiving Approvals

UC OATS archives approvals and disclosures, allowing for historical (and multi-year) searches for approvals/disclosures.

Visit the UC OATS Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) webpage to access a robust library of system related topics and information. 

Individuals covered under Academic Personnel Manual (APM) Section 671 - Health Sciences Conflict of Commitment and Outside Activities of Health Sciences Compensation Plan Participants, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for APM 671 can be accessed here.