Contracts

Contract approval

To comply with the University's Financial Regulations , contracts may only be signed once they have been approved by members of the Corporate Management Team (CMT).

Approval should be signed on a contract approval form, which together with the contract paperwork will then need to be approved by the Senior Legal Officer and the University's authorised signatory in the Finance department. Subject to the value and type of agreement which is being signed off, we may also need other signatures, e.g. the Vice-Chancellor, Governor(s) etc. For more information on the contract approval process please see the following document:

• Contract Approval Process [DOCX]

Delegated limits of approval can be found in Appendix D of the Financial Regulations.

The contract approval form is to be used for all contracts, except for HR contracts, or those made with individuals. You should leave plenty of time for the approval process; an indicative time for approval of contracts is around two weeks (please contact the Senior Legal Officer as early in the process as possible if this turnaround represents an issue)

Once the contract is approved by the Senior Legal Officer, a unique Legal Office Reference Number will be issued for record keeping and future correspondence purposes. Once a Legal Office Reference Number is issued please remember to quote the reference number in all your correspondence in relation to the contract.

• Contract approval form [DOCX]

The following template contracts should only be used in consultation with the Legal Office. They need to be processed with an approval form.

Templates for Consultancy and Project Services Work

• Goods and Services Agreement Template [DOCX]
• Agreement for use where the Sponsor owns IP in the results and University has the right to use the results for academic teaching and academic research - DOCX 51.5 KB
• Agreement Where University owns the IP in the results - DOCX 50.5 KB

Templates for Collaboration Agreements

Collaboration agreement template - Please see notes to assist with completion - DOCX 18.2 KB

• Institutional Memorandum of Agreement - DOCX 99.2 KB
• Memorandum of Agreement (Credit Bearing Short Course) - DOCX 128.9 KB
• Master Progression Agreement - DOCX 102.0 KB
• Master Variation Agreement - DOC 54.0 KB

Other templates

• Non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement - DOCX 45.8 KB
• Memorandum of understanding - DOC 43.0 KB
• Variation of existing contract (only for minor changes of terms/contract; e.g. extension of date) - DOC 51.0 KB
• Deed of Gift / Donation Agreement - DOC 69.0 KB

The Bribery Act

The Bribery Act came into force on 1 July 2011. The University is required, under that Act, to put in place 'adequate procedures' designed to prevent bribery. One of those procedures is the insertion of anti-bribery clauses in contracts - PDF 176.8 KB You will need to adapt the clause since we are referred to as the 'Customer' and the other party as the 'Supplier'.

Due Diligence

The information disclosed in the questionnaire below is gathered for due diligence purposes prior to the University committing to enter into a collaborating agreement. It is usually necessary to undertake further due diligence exercises in the course of pre-contract review; please contact the Senior Legal Officer for more details.

• Due Diligence Check List - DOC 62.5 KB