Get a collaborative research agreement that matches the project on the table

The main risk is usually not the collaboration itself, but assumptions about who owns what once useful results start to emerge. Research projects often involve pre-existing know-how, shared data, staff time, funding, equipment or technical input from more than one party. Without a clear agreement, disputes can arise over ownership of new IP, publication timing, confidentiality obligations, commercialisation rights or whether one party can keep using the outputs after the project ends. Putting those points into a written agreement early usually creates a much clearer framework for the work.

It commonly covers the purpose and scope of the project, each party's contributions, governance or decision-making arrangements, confidentiality, use of background materials, ownership of newly created IP, licensing rights, publication rules, data handling, liability allocation, termination rights and what happens to project materials at the end. Depending on the collaboration, it may also deal with milestones, funding arrangements, reporting obligations or restrictions on using results outside the agreed project. The exact drafting turns on how the parties will work together and what each side is bringing into the collaboration.

Important details include whether the parties are contributing existing IP, whether one side is funding the work, whether results may be commercialised later, and whether academic publication is expected. It also matters who will generate the data, who can access it during the project, whether subcontractors or students are involved, and whether any party wants exclusive rights to use the outcomes in a particular field. Those practical points shape the clauses on ownership, licensing, confidentiality, publication review and exit arrangements, so they should be settled before the document is finalised.

Template wording often needs adjustment so it matches the actual transaction, workflow and risk allocation. However, research collaborations often break away from generic wording quite quickly. Templates may not properly separate background IP from project IP, deal with publication approval windows, or explain what each party can do with data and results after the collaboration ends. They also tend to gloss over field-of-use restrictions, commercialisation pathways and contribution-specific risk allocation. If the project involves valuable know-how, external funding, or more than one institution or commercial party, a more carefully drafted agreement is usually the safer option.

Often yes, but cross-border collaborations usually need extra care. The agreement may need to address governing law, where disputes are handled, how IP rights will be managed across jurisdictions, and whether local advice is needed for parts of the arrangement. If the project involves overseas institutions, funders or commercial partners, there may also be different expectations around publication, data access or ownership structures. We can draft or review the New Zealand agreement position, but overseas legal issues or local-law advice may need to be handled separately.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Collaborative Research Agreement service, pricing starts from $2,000.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.