Research collaboration agreements and contract research agreements.

It should include the following:

ü  Project identification (project title, investigators, amount of fund, etc)

ü  Start and end of the project

ü  Scope of work and budget outline

ü  Milestone/deliverables and associated payments stated

ü  Provisions of confidentiality of information

ü  Rights for publication

ü  Clearly defined intellectual property and ownership rights

ü  Property ownership rights of the University, faculty or department on the equipments purchased under the contract

1. Termination provision

Memorandum of Understanding

Any unit of Wollega University may initiate partnership with other institutions to generate reciprocal benefits and enter a memorandum of understanding. A MoU provides an umbrella for activities such as faculty, staff and graduate students exchanges, joint research activities and publications and participation in seminars and academic meetings through funded projects. Although stemming from one particular academic unit, potential benefits for other faculty units may also be considered when entering the MoU. It is expected that fruitful collaborations will lead to more binding agreements.

A Memorandum of understanding should be accompanied by documents containing the following:

ü  Profile of the proposed partner institution, including a description of its particular research strength and how they complement those of the faculties/departments in WU;

ü  An outline of the collaborative activities that have already been undertaken or currently underway or are intended with the proposed partner institution;

ü  A description of planned joint activities, a list of the faculty/college members from WU and the proposed partner institution involved in these activities, and indication of the potential sources of funds;

ü   A description of the potential short term and long term benefits of the collaboration, for the academic unit in particular as well as for the partner institution (s).

A memorandum of Agreement (MoA)

A memorandum of agreement (MoA) is a binding document governing the relationship and commitments between two parties that enter into agreement. The following outline may be followed when preparing the memorandum of agreement with collaborators.

A. Preamble

It includes:

• Needs, mission and objectives Wollega University
• Institutional interest for collaboration and networking
• Background/basis for collaboration
• Institutional provision which calls for or permits collaboration with others 
• Each sub-area should be indicated briefly and precisely.

B. Articles of Agreement

1. Definitions

It includes acronyms and terms such as WU, SEC, AVP, VPAD, RECS, etc.

1. Areas of Collaboration/Cooperation

Includes:

• Training
• Staff exchange
• Student exchange
• Research and publication
• Program evaluation
• Resource sharing and up-grading
• Improvement of organization and management

1.  Specifics about each area of cooperation (selected from ii above)

In the case training, for example, the kinds of elements that should be considered include

• Type of training
• Participants
• Duration
• Role of each party (such as funding)
• Certification, if appropriate

1. Final section

This section should indicate

• Term of agreement
• Follow-up mechanism
• Provision for renewal, if appropriate,
• Conditions and procedures for termination

Visiting Scholars

In new and growing teaching institutions like WU, there may be a number of visiting scholars and thus it is important to have guidelines and regulations to this effect. The regulations need to include, memorandum of understanding, payments to the institution, necessity of exit report and agreements on patents. If the visiting scholars are post-graduate students, they should have an advisor in WU to monitor what they do. In some cases, an advisor from another institution or organization could be co-opted. Rules and regulations with respect to visiting scholars are outlined in appendix XII.

             Monitoring and evaluation

Any research activity funded from any source requires an effective monitoring and evaluation (M & E) system that enables the assessment of performances, resource utilization, impact and effectiveness of the program. It is, therefore, important to have that a proper M & E system be implemented to ensure proper accountability.

DREPC will be required to draw up a schedule of visit and shall appoint a competent monitoring team. Such a team would need to have the original project proposal including its budget and plan of action. The monitoring and evaluation team shall develop a form and undertake the following M & E tasks:

1. Evaluate progress of the project at each stage in the plan of action;
2.  Examine the relevance of each activity in fulfilling the objectives;
3. Assess whether researchers are using conventional or standard methodologies for which research projects were approved in the conduct of their work;
4. Assess whether there are any changes or modifications to the original program or plan of action and whether these have been explained;
5.  Where ethics apply, assess if they have been observed;
6.  Assess the application of research resources being used; e.g. human, financial, equipment, infrastructure, and transport;
7. Assess the degree of participation, involvement and skills development among collaborators;
8.  Assess overall quality of work;
9.   Make specific recommendation/ if any