Win

Sign contracts and agreements

The Grant Registration Team (GRT) in UCD Research & Innovation manage the review of funders' award documentation, Terms and Conditions and industry agreements. If the award documentation and Terms and Conditions are non-standard, or if no award documentation is available, the GRT will liaise with the relevant support units (UCD Legal, NovaUCD and the Research Finance Office) on behalf of the Principal Investigator, in relation to the documentation that needs to be put in place.

The contract review process can take some time, depending on the complexity of the award documentation to be put in place. Types of agreements include:

  • Research Agreement
  • Contract for Services
  • Consortium Agreements
  • Intellectual Property (IP) Agreements

Several versions of the document(s) may be reviewed before agreement is reached.

All contracts must be signed by the authorised legal signatory in UCD. The GRT will organise this on behalf of the PI. A PI signature is not legally binding and may delay the process. Further information on the Contract Review Process can be found here: Contract review process managed by the Grant Registration Team (GRT)  

EU Horizon Europe Grant Preparation
All stages of the grant preparation for your Horizon Europe project are now carried out on the EU Research Participant Portal.  Support is available for the completion of the EU Portal data.

Steps involved in the Grant Preparation stage of EU Horizon Europe projects:

  1. The Commission sends an email to the coordinator with an "invitation to grant preparation phase" which is then followed by an email with a "request for additional data required to prepare your grant agreement".
  2. The coordinator logs into the Research Participant Portal and inputs the requested data.
  3. All partners in the consortium assign Legal and Financial signatories (called a PLSIGN and PFSIGN) to the project on the Portal.
    UCD partner add PLSIGN  
    UCD partner add PFSIGN  
  4. Once all the data has been inputted onto the Research Participant Portal, the Legal signatory (PLSIGN) of all partners and the coordinator are required to electronically sign the "Declaration of Honour" on the Portal.
  5. The coordinator then submits the grant preparation data on the Portal.
  6. After data checks by the EU Project Officer, the PLSIGN of coordinator receives an email requesting them to sign the grant agreement electronically on the Portal.
  7. The Commission then signs the grant agreement electronically on the Portal.
  8. The PLSIGNs of each of the partners are then requested to sign the 'accession to the grant agreement' electronically on the Portal. This process is displayed in the Infographic.

 

EU Consortium Agreement
The EU 'Consortium Agreement (CA)' is an internal agreement between members of the consortium, to set out their internal arrangements for implementing the grant. In Horizon Europe projects, the partners must prepare a Consortium Agreement (CA), unless otherwise stipulated in the call for proposals. The DESCA Consortium Agreement template is recommended for use in all UCD Horizon Europe projects. The Horizon Europe Guide for establishing a Consortium Agreement can be found here.

  1. Where UCD is leading (coordinating) a project, the Grant Registration Team will prompt you to fill in a template agreement and organise internal review by UCD Legal, NovaUCD and Research Finance Offices. Liaising with project partners is the responsibility of the PI.
  2. Where UCD is a partner in a project, a Consortium Agreement will be drafted by the lead organisation and the UCD Grant Registration Team will organise the internal review by UCD Legal, NovaUCD and Research Finance Offices. Liaising with the lead organisation is the responsibility of the PI.

Further information on this process can be found here.

MS

Local Supports

UCD's Colleges, Schools and Institutes have a range of local support staff and offices that can help you. Their names and contact details are below:

 

College / School / InstituteName & EmailTel
College of Engineering and Architecture Caroline Treacey 1766
School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy Louise Dunne  2673 
I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre Sophie O'Kelly 2962
     
College / School / Institute Name & Email Tel
College of Social Sciences and Law Elva Hannan 8264
School of Archaeology Conor McDermott 8668
School of Politics and International Relations Melina Ziegel 8670 
School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice Maureen Lyons 8574
School of Law Suzanne Darcy  4113
College / School / Institute Name & Email Tel
College of Health and Agricultural Sciences chas@ucd.ie    
School of Agriculture and Food Science
Chanemouga Arunachalam
7390
School of Agriculture and Food Science (Forestry) Charles Harper 7358
UCD Institute of Food and Health Geraldine Quinn 2808
School of Medicine UCDMR 6600
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems

Maria Lawlor

6562
UCD Clinical Research Centre crc@ucd.ie 4577
Systems Biology Ireland  Hugh Doyle   6339 
CSTAR (Research Methods & Statistics Support) cstar@ucd.ie 2076
College / School / Institute Name & Email Tel
College of Science
 
BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre
Info@biorbic.com
2690
iCRAG Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences
 
Insight Centre for Data Analytics
2639
School of Computer Science Julia Palma 2985
School of Mathematics and Statistics 
   
UCD Earth Institute Caitriona Devery
 

Central Supports

ServicesContact Details

You can speak with the Grant Registration Team, who can help you:

  • Manage the full legal, Intellectual Property (IP) and financial drafting and/or review of any agreements pertaining to awards
  • Liaise with external partners and collaborators
  • Register the award on the RMS
  • Arrange transfer to/from UCD of existing awards from another institution
  • Liaise with funders' award portals, e.g. SFI Sesame, IRC Smartsimple, EU Portal
  • Help with amendments to existing awards, e.g. launching amendment on EU Portal, apply (no) cost extensions to research accounts, change of PI.

If you are setting up a research account, please contact the dedicated staff member dealing with your college, or for general queries you can email: grantreg@ucd.ie

ServicesContact Details

UCD Legal provides legal advice on agreements to be drafted and/or reviewed with funders, collaborators, partners. The Grant Registration Team will coordinate this on behalf of the PI

 Direct queries to grantreg@ucd.ie 
ServicesContact Details
The Research Finance Office provides support with:
  • Setting the award up on RMS
  • Assessment of VAT on awards
  • Reviewing award documentation
  • Review and approval of associated contracts (collaboration, industry, Technology Platforms (TPs), DESCA, etc.)
  • Financial reporting to funders
Direct queries to rfo@ucd.ie
ServicesContact Details

UCD Innovation's Intellectual Property solicitor provides legal IP advice on agreements to be drafted and/or reviewed with funders, collaborators and partners.

The NovaUCD Knowledge Transfer team can:

  • Support researchers with regard to IP considerations for funded research projects
  • Prepare research contracts, non-disclosure and material transfer agreements
  • Develop strategies for protection of intellectual property
  • Prepare patent filings in association with patent agents
  • Develop and implement commercialisation strategies to exploit UCD IP
  • Source licensees and marketing of inventions
  • Draft and negotiate licence agreements
  • Meet contractual obligations including the timely reporting of newly discovered intellectual property to the relevant state agencies

UCD Innovation

 

Knowledge Transfer Team    
ServicesContact Details

The UCD Clinical Research Centre provides support to clinical investigators, including:

  • Providing sponsorship of clinical trials
  • Quality and regulatory affairs, including hospital ethics submissions and regulatory submissions
  • Data management, including design and management of study database
  • Scientific services, including sample processing, analysis and storage
  • Research nurse support.

Email for general queries: crc@ucd.ie 

UCD CRC Information for Investigators
ServicesContact Details

UCD HR will advise on recruitment of staff for research awards.

UCD HR Resourcing Consultants
Services Contact Details

The SIRC office provides advice across many areas of health and safety management including:

  • Statutory compliance
  • Development of risk assessments
  • Development of safety protocols
  • Occupational health
  • Occupational hygiene
  • Emergency planning
  • Safety training
  • Safety auditing
  • Hazardous materials safety
  • Pregnant employee safety
  • Fire safety

The SIRC office also manages the university's insurance programme.

In addition the SIRC Office can provide training across a wide range of areas and can develop bespoke safety training for your research group if required. Click here for further details on training.

sirc@ucd.ie