Best Practices

Determine the costs for use of university facilities and/or personnel and confirm that the costs are recovered through appropriate agreements. OIC can work with you to set up these budgets/rates and define clear management roles and responsibliities. The costs, risks, and benefits from working with industry are different from those when working with the government. The rate structure depends upon type of work and costs to recover. Contracts may be fixed price, cost reimburseable, or a combination depending upon the risk assessment and sponsor requirements.

While a federal sponosor may expect an annual written report, industry sponsors will, most likely, want and appreciate more frequent communication. At the beginning of the project, work with the customer to develop an appropriate communication style and timeframe. Ideally, have this discussion while working on the SOW and include certain details in that document. The level and type of communication can have an impact on the budget and schedule that should be understood prior to finalizing those elements.

Make sure that you and your entire team have protocols in place to retain the confidentiality of protected material. Inform new students and workers. Consider electronic, paper and conversational methods.

Tenure track faculty are able to do outside consulting under the one sixth rule. In general, outside consulting occurs you are providing advice regarding the customer's own products and processes. Due to IP ownership issues, it is not appropriate to consult where you are using the intellectual property developed while working at CU Boulder on other projects. When conducting outside work, no CU resources (computers, offices, labs, other personnel) are to be used. If you are interested in working with industry and want to utilize CU resources, then you should work through the Industry office. Remember that external consulting requires departmental approval and should be reported on your FRPA and Disclosure of External Professional Activity (DEPA) and updated any time there is a change -click here for forms, checklists, contacts and links.

As in most areas of life, it is better to over deliver. Schedule, budget, and quality are all important.

The negotiated SOW will be the point of reference to determine what is done and how "completion" is measured. It is important that the document be developed to be specific and measureable and to guide your work on the project. The Industry Office will help in crafting. Sometimes, when working on a project, changes are identified that are desired. Work with the customer, and through the Industry office, to modify the SOW and (perhaps) the budget and schedule to reflect the changes.

File and update DEPA regularly to eliminate added risk or appearance of an unmanaged conflict. Certain projects and protocol reviews cannot receive approval to proceed until an annual DEPA is submitted, reviewed and approved.

Working with foreign national collaborators, institutions, or students may fall under the purview of various federal export control laws. In general, these regulations involve military technology (including nearly all space-based research), “dual-use” technologies (including a wide range of equipment from distillers to lasers), as well as nearly any kind of financial transactions with certain embargoed countries or individuals. It is imperative to identify export control applications soon in the conversation. 

If the equipment in your lab was bought on a federal sponsored research project or another active industry sponsored award, there may be limitations on the use for certain industry work. OIC will work with you to determine if limitations exist, and, if so, options for obtaining right to use.