We have continued to reduce bureaucracy by reviewing national templates and pre-agreeing partners' required amendments.  For some partners this reduces duplication within each contract review; for others this has provided templates where they did not previously exist.  The expectation is that all partners use these as the basis for contracting with all stakeholders, making only project specific amendments.

• Collaboration agreement (long form)

• CI agreement(s)

• Human Tissue Agreement

• Material Transfer Agreement
  
  Partners have also agreed to share templates for data sharing and/or transfer agreement(s) between partners.
  
  All partners have confirmed archiving and replacement of previous templates.  

Please contact your R&D department for more information or request them by email.

UHB is supporting a digital transformation project aiming to increase site contracting capacity, the project will reduce the administrative burden of receiving contract requests, handoffs and approvals, and the burden of oversight.  A second phase will look at streamlining redline review.

The project uses Microsoft 365 (available to all partners) to automate the existing process, escalations and reduce time spent by senior staff managing contracts.

We are working with partners to ensure access to software that will further increase efficiency, such as Docusign.

Initial outputs are anticipated at the end of March 2025.

Between partners there is variation in expectations around contracting requirements, leading to increased delays and confusion.  UHB and UoB have committed contracting expertise to explore this, developing recommendations for the peer group.  

Contracting experts aim to make recommendations on:

• Which contracts are required in which instance

• Agreement from all BHP partners

• Consistent guidance across BHP

• Develop BHP training on the various contracts

A webinar will be recorded and made available on demand, increasing transparency and clarity for the research community.