Decision guide
This Guide has been prepared to indicate the sort of issues that a person practised in negotiating research collaborations will often take into account. Answering the following questions should help you to determine which one of the five Lambert Research Collaboration Agreements is best suited to your needs in a particular set of circumstances.
This Decision Guide is not the only means of deciding what the terms of a research collaboration agreement should be and, having reached a conclusion using this Guide, you should review whether the Lambert Research Collaboration Agreement selected really reflects your position.
All five of the Research Collaboration Agreements and this Guide assume, as a starting point, that:
- the University and the Sponsor wish to collaborate on the Project;
- the University and the Sponsor can agree on the description of the Project (Schedule 2 of the agreement); and
- the Sponsor is willing to pay full economic cost (FEC - for information about FEC see Useful resources); the University can cost the Project on a TRAC/FEC basis; and the University and the Sponsor can agree on a budget and the Sponsor's financial contribution (Schedule 1 of the agreement).
Answering the questions in this Decision Guide may not provide a definitive way forward.
If the circumstances for which you are trying to find an appropriate form of agreement are 'mixed' (e.g. the academic and commercial drivers are of equal importance), you may need to answer a more open-ended set of questions to guide your decision-making.
You may also find that there are other considerations (not mentioned in this Guide) that, because of your circumstances, you may wish to take into account.
The terminology in this Guide reflects that used in the Model Research Collaboration Agreements. Please click on any underlined term to read its definition.