Legal Support for Research Contracts: FAQ's

1. I need legal support, who can help?

Leiden University has legal counsels with different expertise areas, working in various departments:

• General Legal affairs (JZ)
• Privacy legal counsels and officers: privacy related matters, data protection
• HR: employment related matters
• Luris: research contracts, valorisation, intellectual property

2. I need a research contract, who should I contact?

Depending on the type of contract, the legal counsel with the applicable expertise should be contacted.

See list of contracts and counsels below.

3. Which information do I need to provide to the legal counsel?

The following information is needed to draft or review a contract:

• Short explanation of the background and the purpose of the contract
• Name of the principle investigator
• Possible relation with other projects or collaborations
• Expectation of research results (IP) and possible opinion on ownership
• Attachments to the contract, such as the Research Plan and the Budget

4. Who else needs to review the contract?

The researcher is responsible for the scientific content of the contract, mostly described in the attached research plan/project proposal. But also the non-legal terms of the contract, relevant for the performance of the project should be checked by the researcher. Such as clauses on reporting, publication, governance. Desired changes to be provided to the legal counsel.

The financial terms of the content should be checked by the applicable controller or financial advisor.

5. Which research contract templates are available?

The Luris Contract Tool is available for generating Confidentiality Agreements, Material Transfer Agreements and Consultancy Agreements: https://luris.nl/contracts-en/home-luris-contract-tool

For some other research agreements also templates can be made available on request, via luresearchcontracts@luris.nl.

6. What are the response times?

It is important to involve the legal counsels in an early stage, in order to have enough time to prepare the contract and provide legal advice before actual commitments are being made to other parties. Due to the large numbers of research contracts (hundreds per year) and unexpected priorities, legal counsels often need up to two weeks to provide a first review or first draft.

In case a contract is urgent due to circumstances that could not be foreseen, please mention this clearly in the support request to luresearchcontracts@luris.nl.

7. Which internal approvals do I need to obtain before signing of the contract (RfA process)?

An RfA (request for approval) document is generally needed as confirmation that the applicable internal approvals are provided. This is needed to have a contract signed by the legal representative of Leiden University.

On the RfA tool it can be checked if an RfA is needed and a RfA form can be generated: https://luris.nl/contracts-en/request-for-approval

The RfA should be generated by the researcher (or faculty support function) and should be sent to lead legal counsel to approve the final version of the contract.

8. How to deal with legal documents for grant applications?

In case an agreement is part of the grant application procedure and LU is committed to this agreement when applying for the grant, the agreement should be approved by the legal counsel.

9. List of contracts and counsels