Skip to main content
To KTH's start page To KTH's start page

Collaborative Research

Collaborative Research means that the university pursues research with one or several other parties, such as private companies, other universities, and/or institutes.

Man at laptop preparing a presentation.

Within this partnership, the parties contribute resources in the form of fi­nancial funds, materials, existing knowl­edge, and/or other relevant resources. As collaborative Research does not entail full cost coverage for the University, such cooperation may not result in the collaborative partners obtaining the rights to either background information or the results that have been generated at the university. Parties who wish to ob­tain access to background information must pay market-value remuneration to the researchers to obtain it.

As a public entity, the University is subject to EU state aid rules. These regulations limit the sharing of re­search-based IP outside of the market and improper receipt of such rights can be considered illegal use of state aid, which can result in a repayment lia­bility for the collaborative party for the value of the information received.

Collaborative Research involving the University is intended to benefit the research community generally and the University specifically; the University therefore always reserves the right to publish the results as well as use the results in continuing research and edu­cation. This continues to be applicable even when a collaborative party takes ownership over results or otherwise utilizes the results that were originally produced at the University.

It is, however, important to KTH that in disseminating any results that the confidentiality requirements of the collaborative parties are observed such that the results of all parties can be protected in advance of publication. Accordingly, the University accepts that dissemination will not be made until the collaborative parties have been notified and, if necessary, been given the opportunity to postpone dissem­ination for a reasonable time, usually 90 days from the date the party was notified, such that the party can apply for intellectual property rights protec­tion, such as patents. The procedure for this should be described in the Collaborative Research Agreement. As a public entity, the University is limited by certain public disclosure laws and regulations; for further information regarding the university’s limitations regarding confidentiality, please see the section on Confidentiality.

Please note that the University is not authorised to sign agreements that allow unlimited damage claims against the State and Collaborative Research Agreements must therefore contain reasonable limits on liability.