Brunswick Agreements
Brunswick Template Agreements
The Brunswick Group have developed a number of template agreements for use between two universities or similar not-for-profit organisations. The aim is to remove the need to spend time on drafting and negotiation in the majority of cases, and to treat each other in a mutually respectful manner (i.e. "do unto others as you would have do unto you").
These agreements are placed in the public domain to be used freely and adapted as necessary. For each of the agreements, there is a list of institutions who have indicated their willingness to use the templates. This does not require them to do so in all cases, nor does it prevent institutions who are not listed from doing so.
The current agreements are:
- Material Transfer
- Research Collaboration
- Studentship
Brunswick Material Transfer Agreement
The Material Transfer Agreement is for use between two universities (or similar) to facilitate routine transfer of materials between academic institutions. The aim is to remove the need to spend time on drafting and negotiation in the majority of cases, and to avoid the embarrassing situation where a provider of material asks for MTA terms that they would not accept as a recipient.
The approach is deliberately minimal, and is not intended to cater for all situations. In particular, it is not suitable for use with clinical materials. Situations in which there is known to be an IP position that needs careful treatment are also not suitable. However, we have avoided the inclusion of onerous IP terms "just in case IP is an issue" by insisting that no one in the drafting group propose an amendment that they would not accept both as donor and recipient.
We consider that it is reasonable to expect that for routine transfers of materials, universities should be prepared to sign up to identical terms for both incoming and outgoing transfers. Therefore, although this agreement may be used unilaterally, we believe that it will be more effective as the basis of an agreement between two institutions to use the agreement for all routine transfers between them in either direction.
This agreement is not designed for use between universities and commercial organisations, a task that is being tackled by the Lambert Group.
The Material Transfer Agreement is available here as Word or PDF.
If you have any queries, please contact Phil Clare.
The template is available for use by all universities and other public sector research institutions, not just those in the Brunswick Group. A Human Tissue MTA is currently under development.
Institutions that have signed up for its use are:
| Birmingham | Newcastle |
| Bristol | Nottingham |
| Cambridge | Nottingham University Hospital NHS Trust |
| Cardiff | Oxford |
| Durham | Portsmouth |
| Edinburgh | Royal Holloway College, University of London |
| Glasgow | Royal Veterinary College, London |
| Imperial College London | Sheffield |
| King's College London | Southampton |
| Leeds | Sunderland |
| Liverpool | Sussex |
| Manchester | University College Dublin |
If your institution would like to sign up, please contact Ian Carter or Phil Clare.
Brunswick Academic Research Collaboration Agreements
The Academic Research Collaboration Agreements come in two forms: short and long. The two agreements have been designed to be suitable for the majority of cases where two or more universities receive a joint grant from a research council or charity. Of course, occasionally a different arrangement will be required, but in the absence of special circumstances it is expected that one of the Brunswick agreements will be used.
It is intended that both the Short-Form Letter of Agreement and the Long Collaboration Agreement will govern collaborations which are funded by research councils and charities where:
(i) the award is made for a research project (not a Centre) under standard terms;
(ii) the collaborators are academic or non-profit making institutions;
(iii) the collaborating institutions are named in the application as undertaking a specific and significant proportion of the project; and
(iv) the terms of the award do not restrict the universities' ownership or publication of research results or include warranties of any kind.
Short-form Collaboration Agreement is available here as Word or PDF
Long-form Collaboration Agreement is available here as Word or PDF
Guidance Notes are available here
If you have any queries, please contact Barbara Murray.
The template is available for use by all universities and other public sector research institutions, not just those in the Brunswick Group.
Institutions that have signed up for its use are:
- Oxford
- Southampton
- Sussex
- UCL
- University of Sheffield
- King's College London
- Cardiff University
If your institution would like to sign up, please contact Ian Carter or Phil Clare.
Russell Group Studentship Agreement
The studentship agreement is for use between a university and a company for the support of a postgraduate research student.
The Studentship Agreement is available here as Word or PDF.
Although originated by the Brunswick Group, it has been styled through the Lambert toolkit on the Intellectual Property Office web site as the Russell Group Studentship Agreement.
