Research collaboration agreements

Assistance drawing up agreements

Fill out the contract review form and contact the University's legal officers if you need to draw up an agreement. For the fastest assistance possible, describe as clearly as possible how the project will be run and who will be responsible for its various parts. You are responsible for producing all documentation that is relevant for the agreement.

Contract review form

Then send the documentation to universitetsjurist@umu.se.

Learn more about agreements and contracts on Aktum

Does your collaboration concern biobank material?

If your collaboration involves sharing biobank material, you must contact the Section of Biobank and Registry Support (BRS) to prepare the required agreements. You can reach BRS at info.brs@umu.se.

You are never a contractual party to an agreement

In a research collaboration, it is advised to have a collaboration agreement that regulates such aspects as who does what and that protects your right to publish and how research data and results may be used during and after the project. The University is always the party that signs these types of agreements. Individual members of staff are never a contractual party. Agreements are signed by the authorised signatory as defined in the Vice-Chancellor’s decision-making and delegation procedure for Umeå University.

Sometimes, collaboration partners may want to sign personal agreements, such as non-disclosure agreements with their counterparts at Umeå University. If you were to sign such an agreement where you are a party, you risk facing personal liability in the form of penalties or damages. They can potentially be substantial and Umeå University cannot reimburse you for these costs.

See who may sign agreements in the Vice-Chancellor’s decision-making and delegation procedure (umu.se)

Head of department’s certificate

Collaborations and projects require staff resources. In some cases, they may also entail requirements for co‑funding or matching funds from the University. The head of department’s certificate confirms that the head of department is aware of the planned collaborations and projects. For you, as the person responsible for a collaboration or project, the certificate also serves as confirmation that the project can be carried out with the necessary staff and financial resources.

A head of department’s certificate must be signed already at the planning stage of a collaboration or project application.

The certificate is registered and archived together with the other project documents at the department. It is an internal document of Umeå University and does not need to be sent to your collaboration partner.

Find the template for the head of department's certificate

When is an agreement needed?

Some factors that may lead you to consider having an agreement for your research project are:

• that you collaborate with someone who works at a company;
• that your partner is located in another country;
• that you will be processing personal data or biobank material in your research project;
• that one of the parties administers financial resources that the others will use;
• that the funding body requires that there is an agreement between the parties;
• that you use background material in the project that needs to be protected; or
• that there may be results that can be commercialised.

The necessary agreement is determined by the content of the collaboration and with whom you are collaborating.

Terms and conditions about rights to research results

If Umeå University is to enter into an agreement granting your collaboration partner the right to access background knowledge or results, you must sign a so‑called researcher’s certificate. By signing the researcher’s certificate, you acknowledge that you are prepared to offer the partner the right to use or take over your rights to background knowledge and results on reasonable terms. If you do not accept these terms, the consequence is that the University cannot enter into the agreement under those conditions, or that you cannot carry out any work within the project.

Read more about the intellectual property rights of academic staff and your rights to findings

If you agree to the terms, you may later be required to enter into a separate agreement governing the rights to, and compensation for, a specific result. In that agreement, you are the signing party, not the University. Umeå universitet Holding AB can assist you in negotiating such agreements.

As a principal investigator, you are responsible for ensuring that all participating researchers understand the terms of an agreement and sign the researcher’s certificate before undertaking any work in the project.

If consultants or subcontractors are engaged by the University in the research project, any agreement with them must regulate the management of their intellectual property rights.

A researcher’s certificate must be signed once a final agreement is in place. The certificate is registered and archived together with the other project documents at the department.

Find the template for the researcher’s certificate