Guidelines University of Bern
The Universitätsgesetz and the Personnel Statutes of the University are the basis for the guidelines about research collaborations with third parties and the rights and duties of University personnel regarding research results, related intellectual property and its commercialization. The relevant documents are available in the Legal Collection of the University of Bern. Legal collection of university.
Guidelines Covering Handling of Research, Development and Service Agreements and the Acceptance of Financial Research Contributions
The following guidelines provide an overview about the handling of the mentioned agreements at the University of Bern and the responsibilities (in German only).
Separate guidelines exist for the drafting of clinical trial agreements at Inselspital Bern. Another document summarizes the minimum requirements for sponsored clinical trial agreements at Inselspital Bern.
Overhead and VAT
An overhead of 20% is due to the University and must be added to all financial contributions resulting from services, such as contract research. For projects not requiring laboratory infrastructure the overhead rate is 10%. The overhead has to be accounted for when putting together the project budget. For further details please refer to the guidelines. Moreover, the budget needs to account for any VAT that might be due.
Guidelines Covering Commercial Exploitation
The guidelines describe the process for the commercialization of research results and the rights and duties of university personnel.
Distribution of Income
Income from licensing of patented inventions is first used to cover expenses arising from the commercialization process (patenting costs, etc.). Excluding possible claims of a third party (e.g. joint invention with another University) the remaining earnings (net revenues) are then distributed as follows:
1/3 of the net revenues up to cumulative 10 Mio. CHF is transferred to a research account under the control of the group leader in which the invention was made. If the group leader leaves, then the University of Bern management decides on the utilization of the money.
1/3 of the net revenues up to cumulative 3 Mio. CHF and 1/4 up to cumulative > 3 Mio. CHF - 10 Mio. CHF can be privately claimed by the inventors. If claims on the earnings are completely or partially renounced, then the sum will be transferred to the designated research account mentioned above.
1/3 of the net revenues up to cumulative 3 Mio. CHF goes to the University. University management decides about the utilization of the money. What remains of net revenues above CHF 3 million after deduction of the distributions set forth above is transferred to the Innovation Fund of the University of Bern.
For details concerning the distribution of license income from patented or non-patented research results, please refer to the respective guidelines.
Handling of Open Source Software
In March 2021, the University management decided that research group leaders may themselves decide if they wish to publish software developed at the University of Bern as Open Source Software.
The research group leaders are therefore authorized to approve the publication of software as Open Source Software in accordance with the following instructions.
Instructions for the publication of software as Open Source Software for researchers of the University of Bern (Attention: must be explicitly approved by the responsible research group leader!):
Choose a license approved by the Open Source Initiative (opensource.org/licenses). The commonly used licenses are GPL, LPGL, AGPL, MIT, Apache and BSD.
The procedure for applying the license is often described directly in the corresponding license conditions ("how to apply these terms to your new program" or similar). Usually a file named LICENSE which contains the complete license text is placed in the root directory of the project. At the beginning of each source code file, reference is then made to the license used and where the full text of the license can be found (e.g. "This source code is licensed under the BSD license found in the LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.").
The copyright notice of the University of Bern must be included in the header of the source code (e.g. © 2018-2021, University of Bern, [Institute], [Authors]).
Personnel Statutes (excerpt in German)
Art. 60
Immaterielle Arbeitsergebnisse, welche die Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter in Erfüllung ihrer dienstrechtlichen Verpflichtungen sowie in Ausübung der beruflichen Tätigkeit schaffen, gelten ohne weiteres als dem Arbeitgeber abgetreten.
Im Rahmen der Ausübung der beruflichen Tätigkeit, aber ausserhalb der Erfüllung der dienstrechtlichen Verpflichtungen geschaffene immaterielle Arbeitsergebnisse sind dem Arbeitgeber bekannt zu geben; dieser kann sie gegen Bezahlung einer angemessenen Vergütung innert sechs Monaten ab Bekanntgabe erwerben.
Die Ernennungsbehörde kann durch Verfügung oder Vertrag ganz oder teilweise auf die Rechte des Arbeitgebers verzichten.
University Law (excerpt in German)
Art. 70, Erträge aus Urheber- und Patentrechten
Als Drittmittel gelten die Erträge aus der Verwertung von Immaterialgüterrechten, die im Rahmen des Grundauftrags von Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern entstanden sind.
Ist das Urheber- oder Patentrecht im Rahmen einer Nebenbeschäftigung entstanden, so werden die Erträge aus der Verwertung wie Erträge aus Nebenbeschäftigungen behandelt.