Research Contracts

As noted in SFU Research Policy R 10.01, research contracts and agreements involve funds that are assigned for research purposes through a legally enforceable agreement which may include conditions setting forth specific terms governing the conduct, direction and scheduling of the tasks to be performed; designating ownership of proprietary rights to the research results; laying out the financial regimen to be followed; and other restrictions required by the research sponsor. There are also various agreements which do not provide funding, but which facilitate research in other ways.

All contracts and agreements must be written between the sponsor and the University. As described in Policy R10.01, there is an approval process for research contracts and agreements that involves review at many levels prior to signature on behalf of SFU. Before a contract is signed, the principal investigator will be asked to agree in writing to its terms.

SFU Policy R 10.01 requires that results of research undertaken under the auspices of the University must be fully publishable at the discretion of the principal investigator.  SFU will not enter into a research funding agreement that puts undue restrictions on the ability to publish.   SFU does permit protection of a sponsor's proprietary information contributed to a research project and does allow a short publication delay for the purpose of protecting patentable intellectual property.  Research requiring additional publication restrictions may be more appropriate to a personal consulting arrangement for work to be undertaken in non-university facilities and not under the auspices of SFU.

Read more about contractual agreements: