AgreementsFinancial Agreements

Financial agreements formalize the terms and conditions of external sponsorship for work conducted at SDSU:

Sponsored Research Agreement: Sponsored research involves the development of intellectual property supported, in whole or substantial part, by external grants or contracts awarded to SDSU. The university retains the right to publish or otherwise disclose the results of the work for the purpose of achieving SDSU’s academic mission.

Sponsored Service Agreement: Work conducted under a sponsored service agreement is not investigative in nature, is strictly limited to an explicit protocol, and does not contemplate development of intellectual property by SDSU. Any data generated from the service is provided to the sponsor in raw format without any analysis, interpretation or any other form of manipulation or intellectual input.

Nonfinancial agreements are designed to protect university ideas, materials and research results.

A nondisclosure agreement is sometimes referred to as a confidential disclosure agreement. These agreements govern the terms for exchanging confidential information between the university and an outside party. 

A nondisclosure agreement can be implemented to protect confidential information that is coming to or leaving the university for a variety of reasons. This includes, but is not limited to: research proposals, business plans, data and research results, inventions, and sponsored project discussions. A nondisclosure agreement will determine what is confidential information and what is not, how the information is disclosed, how long the information must be kept secret, who the information can be disclosed to, as well as a variety of other topics depending on the individual agreement.

A material transfer agreement is an agreement that governs the transfer of tangible research materials between two organizations. This agreement typically lays out the terms for exchanging the material and determines how this material can be used by the receiving party.

A data use agreement is typically required to share nonpublic or restricted use data with another entity. A data use agreement is a legally binding contract that specifies the terms and conditions governing the data to be shared.

Usually a data use agreement is required when a limited data set is to be shared or transferred to another party. By definition, a limited data set does not contain any Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-defined identifiers (direct identifiers). A limited data set can have indirect identifiers like age, dates of treatment and geographic data elements (city/state/zip code). Note that since a street address is considered to be a direct identifier, it must not be included in a limited data set.

A data use agreement is not required if there is another agreement (e.g. funding agreement) in place that already addresses the terms and conditions of the limited data set transfer between the two entities.

Any time protected health information, other than that which would qualify as a limited data set, is to be shared or transferred, a business associate agreement is required.

A business associate agreement is required when a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-covered entity like a hospital needs to share or transfer data that contains direct identifiers or protected health information with another party. The business associate agreement is a legally binding contract between a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-covered entity and another party and is used to safeguard protected health information in accordance with the HIPAA regulations. A business associate agreement, when agreed to, should be limited only to the project.

A business associate agreement is required when data is to be transferred or shared and contains direct identifiers or protected health information such as the following: names, postal addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, vehicle identification/serial numbers, license plate numbers, biometric identifiers (e.g. finger or voice prints) and full-face photographic images or any comparable images.

A business associate agreement contains requirements for security, privacy, compliance and defense that the recipient must adhere to in the project. Thus, the project and decision to use a business associate agreement must take into account these costs and risks.

Research collaboration agreements are primarily used when two universities want to collaborate on a research project and they do not have third-party funding to support large research expenses. This agreement usually details each party’s responsibilities for the project and provides for joint publication of research results. This type of agreement can also be used when the two institutions are seeking preliminary data to apply for joint research funding. Departmental approval for research collaborations is recommended and your department may require that you prepare a sample budget of estimated expenses.