Depending on the scope of the project and how it progresses, different types of agreements might be needed. You are welcome to contact the Legal Affairs Office if you have any questions or want advice regarding agreements.
What agreements need to be reviewed by the Legal Affairs Office?
If you use a template that has been created by the Legal Affairs Office without any changes, the agreement does not have to be reviewed by a legal officer before signing. If changes are needed or you need to design an agreement where there is no template, you need to contact the Legal Affairs Office.
If you receive an agreement proposal from a collaborator, you should contact the Legal Affairs Office as soon as possible. It is common that the terms of such a proposal need to be adjusted and negotiated between the parties.
Agreements on purchasing, rental of premises, and employment are not part of the Legal Affairs Office's remit. Please contact the office responsible if you have any questions about these types of agreements, such as the Financial Office, the Property Management Office or the Human Resources Office.
How to request a review of an agreement
When you want help drafting or reviewing an agreement, fill out and submit the Contract review form that you find on this page (the form is only available in Swedish at this time) to: universitetsjurist@umu.se.
Relevant documentation that is of significance to how the agreement is designed such as the funding application, grant terms and conditions, application for ethical approval, information classification, risk and vulnerability assessment or another party's proposal for an agreement needs to be submitted together with the Contract review form.
The information that the Contract review form requests and the legal officer needs to know as early as possible in the process:
- Parties and responsibilities: Who are the parties in the agreement? What will the parties collaborate on and how are responsibilities for different parts of the project distributed?
- Financing: How, and by whom, is the project financed? Has the financial plan been reviewed by the responsible financial administrator?
- Ownership of and right to use results: What are the expected results of the project? Does any party have demands to ownership or interest in using another party's results? Under what conditions does background information from another party need to be used for the implementation of the project?
- Materials and data: Will any material or data be shared between the parties? Which party holds this material or data? What will be transferred? What quantity? Under what conditions? Does the use of such material or data need to be restricted?
- Personal data: Will personal data be processed in the project? How is this data collected and by whom?
- Confidential information: Is there any information in the project that needs to be kept secret? For how long? What effects will this have on the opportunities to publish or otherwise share the results?
- Will any students or doctoral students take part in the project?
- Publishing: Will there be any restrictions on distributing the results, for example an obligation to notify another party before publishing? Are there any deadlines for such a notification? This is especially important in projects involving doctoral students, as it may affect their possibility of finishing their doctoral studies on time.
- Will any goods or services need to be purchased?
- Duration and deadlines: When will the project start and finish? When does an agreement need to be in place?
The agreement must, as clearly as possible, regulate the relationship between the parties for the duration of the agreement. It is important to specify a contact person from the department, unit or research group who has knowledge of the project that the agreement regulates so the legal officer can ask questions and get as much information as possible when drawing up the agreement.
Who is authorised to sign agreements?
Umeå University is always the contracting party in agreements concerning university operations. An employee of Umeå University cannot be a party to an agreement relating to university activities or projects that are to be conducted within the University using the University's resources.
Agreements are signed by the person who is authorised to do so according to the University's current Vice-Chancellor's decision-making and delegation procedure. Depending on the value, scope and content of the agreement, it could be the Vice-Chancellor, the University Director, Dean, Head of Department or Head of Office who is authorised to sign the agreement. If all parties allow it, and it is technically possible, the agreement may be electronically signed. Read more about electronic signatures.
When the agreement has been signed by all parties, the University's copy must be recorded in the archives.
Purchasing contracts
Contracts for the purchase of goods and services must generally be preceded by a public procurement governed by the Public Procurement Act. Contact the Procurement and Purchase Office as soon as possible to get support and advice on the procurement process.