Research Agreements
Another important part of project planning is making sure that everyone’s contributions are recognized and that participants are properly compensated and/or protected.
You are encouraged to have these discussions early in the project planning stage, to ensure that everyone is on the same page and to avoid potential disagreements later.
The type of agreement usually depends on the nature of the research, the funding that is made available, and the intended outcome of the project.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property refers to any intellectual creation, such as literary works, artistic works, inventions, designs, symbols, names, images, computer code, etc. Intellectual property law exists to protect the creators and covers areas of copyright, trademark law, and patents.
At Fanshawe, ownership of IP rests with the creator. Ownership as a concept revolves around the ability to “publish” or “exploit” IP. This means that, ideally, there is a tangible outcome of a research project. For instance, a non-profit organization may create a new policy, or a local business may bring a new product to market (with the intention to “commercializes” the IP). Typically, if an industry partner funds a project, they will own the IP.
If you are hired to work as a Student Assistant on a project, you may need to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (addressed in Module 4.) in order to ensure protection of arising IP.
It is important to note that colleges do not receive funding to assist with the commercialization of IP.
At Fanshawe, different considerations apply to Teaching and Learning resources compared to funded research outcomes. A student generally owns the content they create as part of coursework.
You are encouraged to review Fanshawe’s Intellectual Property Policy and its Commercialization Policy. The Centre for Research & Innovation can help researchers navigate college IP policies and facilitate access to resources and external supports.
As well, colleges do not receive funding to assist with the commercialization of IP. As such, it is very unlikely that a college will have facilities (such as a Tech Transfer office) or personnel with the expertise to provide guidance in this particular area. We can, however, direct researchers to external support.
Further Learning: Intellectual Property at Fanshawe
If you would like to do a deeper dive on this topic, there is a free online module called Intellectual Property in Applied Research. This module also looks at IP from a student Research Assistant perspective.
Data Sharing Agreements
In the early stages of project development, consideration should also be given to how the research data will be shared at the end of the project. For instance, if you are planning to conduct research with human participants, it is important to obtain permission to share project outcomes and, potentially, the data itself if appropriate.
Please review the Research Data Management section of this toolkit for more information on this topic.
