Transfer: science / economy
Industry projects involve an exchange between HHU as a provider of research and development work and other services and a second organisation (normally a for-profit business) commissioning the University to perform the requested service for a fee.
In these cases, HHU presents itself as a business on the market and is obliged to act in accordance with the customary legal, fiscal and business practices.
In particular, the fee paid to HHU in exchange for its services must be in line with market requirements. HHU is obliged to charge its contract partner an individual and appropriate profit margin in addition to the actual cost incurred while performing the contracted service.
Ownership of inventions and patents resulting from the contracted service is always to be transferred separately and to be charged at the normal market rate.
Please contact our contract lawyer in advance if you intend to carry out an industry project!
Our contract lawyer is available to provide comprehensive advice on commercial, contractual and tax affairs.
The consultation is structured as follows:
• the intended project and its circumstances are discussed in detail;
• the cost of the project is calculated according to commercial standards;
• the appropriate draft contract is drawn up;
• tax implications are considered.
Following the consultation, you will be able to approach your contract partner with a well-prepared, precisely calculated project proposal and a concrete draft contract.
We will provide you with the latest relevant tool for calculating your industry project, an elaborated draft contract, and all other necessary documents within the framework of the consultation.
Please take note of your obligations under customs and export control law as soon as you initiate an economic project - information on this can be found on the Wiki pages of HHU’s Central Purchasing Department (D 5.2/Specialised Area Customs) at https://wiki.hhu.de/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=556304006 ("Imports into the customs territory of the European Union and exports to non-EU countries") and at https://wiki.hhu.de/display/D5S/D+5.2+Exports as well as at https://www.forschung.hhu.de/wissenschaftliche-integritaet/exportkontrolle ("Export and export control").
After all parties have signed the contract and the project has commenced, please ensure that no party to the contract deviates in any way from the terms or the project implementation that have been agreed upon. This includes you, your employees and everyone on your contract partner’s side. A project that is executed outside of the terms of its contract or the agreed project implementation may have negative consequences for the HHU under customs and/or export control laws, tax laws and/or state aid laws. Please discuss any intended modifications to the project that deviate from the contractual terms or the agreed project implementation with our contract lawyer first.