Selecting Partners in Cooperative Research and Development

Basic considerations

Each project at the R & D Center is different. As an investigator at the Center, you may be involved in several projects, and the decisions you make for one project may be quite different from those that make sense in another project. Naturally, you will select partners for scientific or user reasons or clinical reasons. This section provides information that clarifies these relationships and suggests how they can impact on technology transfer.

If you are planning to involve an outside organization or individual, you'll want to decide early what role they will play and what rights or rewards they will be entitled to as a result of their participation.

• If the project is not likely to result in a patent or licensing and no ownership and royalties are likely to be assigned, you may not need to exercise caution concerning who contributes to the effort, but remember that who participates usually makes a great deal of difference in terms of the quality of the product. Of course, their involvement must be consistent with the rules of ethics and propriety that govern all VA-supported work.
  
  
• If the project is likely to lead to a patent or licensing, you'll want to keep arrangements as simple as possible. Involving too many people from different organizations (each of which can have conflicting rules about ownership and royalties) can get complex and time consuming. You will want to cover yourself by obtaining non-disclosure agreements (from persons who are not directly involved in the project) whenever there is a possibility that the disclosure of aspects of your work would somehow compromise the potential for transfer of the product.

The question of rights in patents revolves around the definition of an inventor, not a collaborator. However, royalties are customarily shared among those who have played significant roles in the development process.

Investigator

Transfer Officer

Center Director