Service Agreement / Contract Research

In contract research the partner (usually a firm) acts as the client and the university partner as the contractor. The university partner executes the instructions as defined by the client and with a clear objective. The commission must be self-contained. The focus is on the application of existing know-how by the university to solve the specific research question of the client. The testing of substances in an established test model or carrying out measurements and analyzing the results are typical examples of contract work. This might also lead to a better utilization of the capacity or expensive equipment.

Contract research is generally of secondary scientific importance to the university partner. For this reason, service agreements are quite rare at most institutes or departments except for those units that have a mandate to provide such services for the public. Usually university groups cooperate on the basis of a sponsored research agreement.

The specific goal and the exact extent of the services rendered by the university partner must be recorded in the arrangement. In contrast to a collaborative research agreement, the industry partner must pay the full costs for the services, which are in line with market conditions. This includes salaries, consumables, university overhead, margin, VAT, etc. If possible, the right to publish the results should be granted unless it is confidential information disclosed by the industry partner to the university partner.

In contrast to collaborative research, the rights to economically exploit both the results obtained during contract research and possible inventions belong to the client. The university should have the right to use the results for internal research and teaching purposes.

The university retains ownership of knowledge, methods, tools, materials, software or intellectual property rights used or developed to perform the service requested.

Unitectra will draw up a draft for a contract research agreement for you as well as examine any contract you received from an industry partner. In addition, we will support you during negotiations with industry partners.