Externally funded research agreements
Research funding agreements provide external funding for research to be performed by a UVic project team. A UVic faculty member* must sponsor the project.
If UVic is named as a party to the agreement, it must comply with the external research funding agreements policy and the associated procedures for approval of external research funding agreements. Contracts staff are responsible for coordinating development, review, negotiation, and finalization of research funding agreements to ensure that terms and conditions are consistent with UVic standards.
*Note: Adjunct professors cannot be the principal investigator on funding agreements other than Tri-Council grants – adjuncts will need a faculty member (an assistant, associate, or full regular professor) to be the principal investigator of record.
Types of research funding agreements
- Grants-in-aid provide support for a researcher’s proposed project with few obligations other than a report on the results.
- Collaborative research agreements set out the arrangements for joint research of mutual interest to the researcher and the sponsor, typically with shared rights to the results.
- Directed research agreements involve a researcher defining a research plan to address a specific issue identified by the sponsor. The sponsor typically owns reports or other deliverables, with the researcher retaining rights to the methodology and to use the work for research or academic purposes.
- Service contracts involve fee-for-service arrangements where researchers perform testing or analysis of materials owned by the sponsor and do not anticipate any intellectual discoveries in the process.
Private consulting agreements
As outlined in the faculty framework agreement researchers at UVic can engage in paid or unpaid part-time external professional activities, including private consulting agreements with an interested partner. These are agreements between an individual researcher and another party, and do not involve UVic or our office.
UVic cannot be named in private contracts, but if a researcher wants to use UVic space, equipment, or other resources for a private research contract, we can help with a facilities use agreement to confirm the arrangements between the researcher and the university.
Researchers are responsible for ensuring that any private consulting work is in compliance with the requirements of the faculty framework agreement, the policy on the use of university facilities of academic departments by external organizations and individuals, and any other relevant UVic policies or procedures.
Agreement templates
Some types of external funding programs have standardized, non-negotiable terms. These are linked from our templates page.