All contracts and consultancies are conducted on behalf of ANU, and only appointed Delegates have the legal authority to sign contracts or agreements on behalf of the University. Agreements involving the commercialisation of ANU intellectual property must be approved by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) or the Vice-Chancellor.

Timing

It will take time to properly review your contract. It is important that you begin your planning early to minimise delays to your desired start date.

Contracts requiring multi-party agreement regularly experience significant delay due to the number of parties and the need for each to seek legal advice. The speed with which a contract can be executed is dependent on a number of factors including the responsiveness of the parties involved. Contracts cannot be signed by delegates until all parties agree to a final contract.

Steps to finalising your research contract

College Research Office requests assistance from the Research Contracts Office (RCO)

The RCO requires all relevant documents and correspondence pertaining to the contract at the time of the request, including:

• Awarded Funding Application (if applicable)
• Delegate-approved Initial Budget
• Delegate-approved Revised Budget
• Head Agreement/Draft Contract
• Emails from ANU CI and funder

Contract Review

• Contract terms are reviewed by the allocated RCO team member
• Consultation occurs with ANU Legal Office, the Technology Transfer Office (TTO), College Human Resources and Finance Offices, and many others both internal and external to ANU as necessary
• Considerations and recommendations are discussed with CI
• Negotiations commence with other party/ies

Contract Signing

• Once negotiations are complete, RCO prepares a contract execution memo for the delegate including a risk assessment, and arranges for delegate approval
• RCO facilitates signatures by all parties to the contract
• Final signed copy is sent to the College RO and the other party/ies

Post-Execution Contract Management

• College RO is your point of contact going forward, and is responsible for managing the contract milestones

• Requests for contract variations/extensions/terminations should first go to your College RO