• Section 1 - Purpose and Scope
• Section 2 - Policy
• Principles
• The Agreement
• Ethics and Safety
• Commercial Returns
• Data Management and Intellectual Property
• Confidentiality
• Dissemination of Research Outcomes
• Conflict of Interests
• Authority and Compliance
• Section 3 - Definitions

Section 1 - Purpose and Scope

(1) The University of New England (UNE) encourages its researchers to collaborate with others within and outside the University to complement and expand existing research strengths and capability. The aim of these collaborations is to enable research opportunities, outcomes and impacts to be enhanced and maximised.

(2) Collaborative research refers to research undertaken by staff at UNE who are sharing knowledge and working with researchers from outside the University to realise shared goals.

(3) Collaborative arrangements must ensure research conduct is consistent with legislative and regulatory requirements, the Code of Conduct for Research Rule and other relevant policies and rules, including the policies and requirements of collaborating institutions and agencies.  

(4) This Policy applies to all research conducted by UNE staff and students as well as research collaborations between UNE staff and students who are based external to UNE.

(5) The Policy applies to all research activities, including:

1. overseas institutions and community members; and/or collaborations involving Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs), research institutes, formal contracts and collaborations with external parties such as other researchers, industry partners and external institutions;
2. partnerships or funding arrangements covered under formal legal contracts and/or MOUs covered under other UNE policy and/or alternative arrangements.

(6) Activities involving dissemination of research outputs and outcomes, for example joint publications, must adhere to expectations set out in relevant UNE Rules and Polices, for example Research Authorship Rule and Non-Traditional Research Outputs Guidelines.

Section 2 - Policy

Principles

(7) Collaborative research must serve to complement and expand existing research strengths and capability to enable research opportunities to be more fully exploited.

(8) Collaborative research activities must consider alignment with UNE’s values and strategic aims and are required to be conducted in accordance with the general principles of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research 2018 (the Code). 

(9) Researchers engaging in collaborative research with personnel or organisations external to UNE, must ensure that an agreement is reached and documented, with all project partners, that is consistent with the principles of honesty, transparency, fairness, respect, and accountability and in accordance with the Code, Guides and Institutional policy and relevant legislative requirements.

(10) Appropriate due diligence inquiries into the standing of potential international research partners must be made, and must consider and meet compliance requirements associated with:

1. foreign interference risks;
2. defence export controls and autonomous sanctions; and
3. modern slavery risks including child safety requirements.

(11) All research undertaken at UNE or in collaboration with UNE must meet the requirements of legislation and University policies pertaining to Work Health and Safety.

The Agreement

(12) A written, Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) is required to establish formal research collaboration with another institution The CRA should be in place prior to the project's commencement and should be updated by agreement as required.

1. Except where the collaboration only involves joint authorship, with agreement under clause (16) of UNE’s Research Authorship Policy, and where compliance requirements set out in (10) above have been met.

(13) The formal agreement between UNE and the collaborating institution(s)/persons should include details about which institutions will meet the reporting and compliance requirements to relevant committees, approval authorities and agencies.

(14) Where a UNE staff member is the Principal Investigator and/or the research is conducted primarily under the auspices of UNE, UNE will normally have primary reporting, and research project management responsibilities. In such instances, where appropriate the CRA should accord with UNE policy.

(15) When developing Collaborative Research Agreements, the following general requirements must be considered and included where appropriate and applicable:

1. the expectations of each party in terms of definitions of roles and responsibilities, including the designation of the institution or individuals that will take the lead in reporting to funders, regulatory bodies, the allocation of responsibilities in relation to ethics and governance approval and safety clearances;
2. governance of the project, including management of significant changes, such as partners leaving or joining the collaboration, the management of confidentiality, requirements for the disclosure and management of conflicts of interest and the designation of which parties are entitled to communicate on behalf of the collaboration;
3. documentation of anticipated contributions, authorship agreements and acknowledgement of research outputs, including data outputs;
4. the use, management, sharing, ongoing stewardship, access control and ownership of research data, primary materials, and intellectual property (including copyright and pre-existing intellectual property belonging to individual parties that is shared in the course of the collaborative research), as well as access to other assets or items that are retained at the end of the project or in the event that a collaborator or institution leaves the collaboration during the project. This should be documented in a Research Data Management RDM plan;
5. funding arrangements (with funding sources declared transparently) as well as any plans to commercialise research outputs and any entitlements to commercial returns;
6. dispute resolution procedures to facilitate the just, efficient, timely and cost-effective resolution of any issues in dispute; and
7. the procedures for managing and investigating potential breaches of the Code, including provisions for the disclosure, where necessary, of researchers’ personal information to other collaborative institutions and, where relevant, funders, to facilitate the management and investigation of potential breaches of the Code.

(16) Additional specific considerations and agreements should be included in written agreements where relevant as detailed below.

Ethics and Safety

(17) Appropriate research ethics and safety clearances and approvals or reciprocal approvals must be obtained from the relevant UNE Committee/s and where appropriate approvals or reciprocal approvals from committee/s of collaborating institution/s, prior to commencement of the research. Approvals should be consistent with the requirements of the Australian Code and other relevant guidelines, codes and legislated compliance requirements.

(18) The Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes 2013 requires that where parts of an animal-based project take place at different institutions, each institution’s Animal Ethics Committee must be cognisant of all aspects of the project and ensure that any cumulative impact of procedures on animals is considered and managed.

Commercial Returns

(19) Where it is anticipated that there will be commercial returns resulting from a collaborative research project, the formal agreement between partner institutions to the project must include details about distribution of those returns, and must be consistent with the UNE Commercial Activities Rule, if not captured elsewhere.

Data Management and Intellectual Property

(20) Where the primary researcher for a joint research project is a UNE staff member, as per the Definitions section of this policy, UNE will normally be the holder of the research materials and data. If UNE is not the holder of the research materials and data, the primary researcher must create a metadata record of the research material and data in the Institutional Repository.

(21) Where UNE is the holder and or owner of the research materials and data, all requirements outlined in the Research Data Management Policy and Knowledge Assets and Intellectual Property Policy should be met. In addition: 

1. the arrangement for shared access to research materials and data must be negotiated prior to commencement of the research project and must be included in the formal written agreement and documented as required under UNE policy; and
2. each collaborating institution will identify a person from their institution who is to be involved in the management of research data, primary materials and other items to be retained at the end of the project.

(22) It is essential that the formal agreement between UNE and a collaborating organisation include identification of creators, and distribution and ownership of Intellectual Property before (where possible), during and after the conclusion of a collaborative research project.

Confidentiality

(23) The nature and scope of confidentiality requirements must be agreed upon by the collaborating researchers and documented in the formal agreement between institutions and all confidentiality requirements under relevant legislation, agreements, research ethics requirements and other relevant professional standards must be met.

(24) Confidential materials must be stored securely and researchers who are given access to confidential materials must maintain that confidentiality and use the information only in ways that are consistent with ethical and legal requirements and agreed to by those who gave the information.

(25) When a UNE researcher uses data which is held outside UNE, details of the source of the data, arrangements for its storage and the agreement, including any confidentiality issues, with the holding institution must be lodged on the UNE research data management system.

Dissemination of Research Outcomes

(26) The means by which research outcomes will be disseminated must be agreed upon and written into the agreement between the collaborating institutions.

(27) The UNE staff members who are involved in the collaborative research project must comply with the UNE Research Authorship Policy.

Conflict of Interests

(28) UNE Researchers involved in collaborative research projects need to be aware when a potential conflict of interest may arise and are required to disclose and manage conflicts of interest arising in collaborative research, as required under the UNE Conflicts of Interest Policy and Procedures.

Authority and Compliance

(29) The Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer (VC&CEO), makes this Rule, in accordance with the Vice-Chancellor Functions Rule.

(30) UNE Representatives and Students must observe it in relation to University matters.

(31) The Rule Administrator, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research is authorised to make policies and associated information for the operation of this University Rule. The policies and associated information must be compatible with the provisions of this Rule.

(32) This Rule operates as and from the Effective Date.

(33) Previous policy and related documents regarding collaborative research are replaced and have no further operation from the Effective Date of this new Rule.

(34) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Rule, the Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer may approve an exception to this Rule where the Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer determines the application of the Rule would otherwise lead to an unfair, unreasonable or absurd outcome. Approvals by the Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer under this clause must be documented in writing and must state the reason for the exception.

Section 3 - Definitions

(35) Research collaborations are those which are likely to involve the need for institutional approvals for the lodgement of funding applications or other formal agreements with third parties, or which may involve the expenditure of funds or the use of resources beyond the normal discretion of individual academics to make as part of their research activities. Research collaboration between individual academics to produce scholarly outputs are not considered to be research collaborations for the purpose of this policy.

(36) Institution refers to a legal organisation, which may or not be another higher education provider, a business, a community or government organisation or an industry, whose staff may collaborate with UNE staff.

(37) Primary researcher refers to the lead or chief investigator.

(38) Research is defined in the Australian Research Council ERA 2010 Submission Guidelines as:

1. the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way such as to develop new concepts, methodologies and understandings, and could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative.

(39) Staff - see UNE Representative.