We recommend agreeing on the rules and responsibilities between the partners of a consortium project in the application phase by drawing up a letter of intent or similar document. Start the preparations well in advance before the deadline! When signing a contract with an external party, Uniarts Helsinki always acts as the contracting party in place of the individual researcher, although the researcher often represents the university in the contract negotiations. That is why it is advisable to get in contact with the university’s lawyer in contract matters from the very start.
Topics to observe include:
We recommend drawing up the actual consortium or partnership agreement only after the funding has been secured.
Even if you do not have consortium partners, it is good to agree on the division of work and authorship among the project's researchers. In the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK's recommendation for agreeing on authorship, you can find a model agreement for that purpose. The model can also be used for agreeing on the division of work and the responsibilities of individual researchers.
Legal Counsel Titti Luukkainen
Copyright Attorney Maria Rehbinder
maria.rehbinder@aalto.fi
More on agreements in the Uniarts Project Guide