Article 1.3 of the Higher Education and Research Act states that universities, and therefore also the UMCG, in addition to providing scientific education and conducting scientific research, must also ensure that the knowledge created can be used for the benefit of society.
All research collaborations must meet the following conditions:
In addition, it should be carefully considered whether within the collaboration:
In collaborations with external parties where data and biomaterials of patients/study participants are to be shared, it is the patient/participant’s consent, as recorded in a written consent form, that determines whether the data or biomaterials can be used. The UMCG webpage ‘Use of your medical data and biomaterials for scientific research‘ describes how, when, and what kind of data and biomaterials of UMCG patients/research participants can be used and when an exception to consent can legitimately be made.
The terms and conditions for collaboration must be laid down in a contract that must be drawn up in consultation with the LCR. This also applies to collaborations within consortia and with private research funders (e.g. pharmaceutical industry, foundations, health funds). For research funded by public organisations (e.g. NWO, ZonMW, the EU), please contact the Grant Support Hub. It is mandatory that funding go through these offices. More information about contract types can be found on the intranet.
Collaboration with companies is one of the ways to utilise research results, the knowledge generated, and patented inventions. Companies often have good knowledge about the market’s needs and can help to meet the right need with the knowledge available. Such interactions with companies can be set up in a variety of ways, including:
For more information and to set up such routes, you can approach the Innovation Centre.
According to Article 9.4 of the Cao UMC 2022-2023, staff members are obliged to inform their employer at the earliest possible stage about a potentially patentable invention that they produced or coproduced in the performance of their duties. At the UMCG, this must be reported to the Innovation Centre, which determines together with the researcher or staff member whether a patent application is appropriate and warrants further support.
To ensure that an invention retains commercial potential, protection of the invention is crucial. According to the National Patent Act 1995, the UMCG owns the IP rights to all research results and inventions, including data, software, apps, databases, prototype devices, and materials developed by UMCG staff members. The researcher remains the inventor or author.
Filing a patent application does not mean that the invention cannot subsequently be published, but premature disclosure of knowledge makes patent protection impossible. Therefore, prior to any disclosure of a potentially patentable invention in the form of, for example, articles, abstracts, presentations, or public discussions, it is mandatory to verify whether knowledge protection is necessary. After a patent application has been filed, the knowledge can be published in any form desired.
The UMCG document The Value of Knowledge offers a practical guide for applying for patents in accordance with the basic rules for valorisation as formulated by the NFU. Help can be provided by the Innovation Centre in collaboration with UG IP & Business Development.
The National Guideline on Knowledge Security describes the dilemma that top-level science cannot exist without collaboration with other parties but that the threats around knowledge security are increasing, especially in international collaborations.
The basic premise is that scientific organisations and their researchers must ensure that international collaborations can take place safely: open where possible, protected where necessary.
Knowledge security involves:
For each study, the risks concerning knowledge security and the protective measures needed must be clear. For more information, see the national Knowledge Security Office and the UG Knowledge Security Office.
The NFU, and thus also the UMCG, endorses the Code for the prevention of improper influence due to conflicts of interest, KNAW, 2012, updated in 2017.
In a conflict-of-interest situation, staff members have interests that can adversely affect their functioning or bring harm to the UMCG. For example:
Private interests exist when staff members or their family, partner, or other acquaintances personally benefit from a situation. This is the case, for example, if a staff member has the UMCG purchase products from a company in which this staff member owns shares.
In the case of interests pertaining to a specific role, staff members are favoured because of the role they have in the UMCG. For example, a staff member systematically prescribes drugs from a particular company as a means to have their research sponsored.
Financial conflicts of interest often arise in the case of interests in companies or organisations that are active in the same field as the UMCG or have financial interests in relation to the UMCG. In particular, this can occur when a UMCG staff member or their family member, partner, or acquaintance:
Conflict of interest is potentially harmful because it can lead to:
A staff member withholds or adjusts research results in favour of a funder or chooses a research topic that is favourable to the funder (restriction of academic freedom).
Academic staff at the UMCG must comply with the UG regulations Sector regulation on additional activities and Regulation on Additional Interests and the valorisation directive Naar een goede waarde, 2009 of the NFU. The GMH and CGR apply to both researchers and healthcare professionals.
There are different types of activities and interests: additional activities (external activities in line with the role), additional work, and additional interests. These may lead to potential, apparent, or actual conflicts of interest, and all three must be reported in accordance with the instructions in the three subsections below.
Below we provide more information per type. Further questions can be addressed to the P&O adviser to the employee’s department.
This section pertains to activities that a staff member performs on behalf of the UMCG and/or activities that are clearly related to the role that the employee has at the UMCG. These are performed on behalf of the UMCG and are not regarded as additional work.
If a discount, compensation, or reimbursement is given for this external activity (for example, a discount on conference costs or reimbursement of hours when giving a presentation), an agreement must be drawn up in the name of the UMCG. Any compensation received is for the department. In this case, notification to the transparency register is also necessary (see Additional work). Some activities without remuneration or discounts also require an agreement, e.g. to record IP agreements (see Patents). These agreements must be submitted to the LCR, which reviews the agreement and ensures the signing of the agreement by the Board of Directors.
Additional activities for which an agreement must be drawn up must be reported on the staff member’s UG staff page (their MePa). This also applies to additional work and additional interests (see below) and to all activities, relationships, and interests that could restrict academic freedom through a situation of dependence, pressure, or other obligations (political, financial, or otherwise).
Sometimes additional activities can become additional work, for example when an advisory committee is given a political assignment. In that case, the following rules for additional work must be followed. In case of doubt, these situations are to be discussed with the head of department.
In accordance with the CAO UMC’s article 9.3, staff members are obliged to seek permission from the management of their department for all external professional work using the additional activities form and to not carry out the work until management has made a positive decision. The management checks whether the work concerns work that:
In the notification of additional work, the following must always be specified:
Approved additional work must be registered in the staff member’s personnel file by the personnel adviser, and the staff member must mention the additional work on their UG staff page (MePa). Additional work that has been completed that can still lead to conflicts of interest or apparent conflicts must also be mentioned.
BIG-registered researchers must register the financial relationship in the Transparency register if the company funding their research or presentation:
In other cases, the Dutch company must take care of the registration in the register.
Staff members are obliged to immediately inform the management of their department if:
If necessary, the situation will be discussed with the legal department or the Board of Directors, and the approval can be withdrawn.
Sometimes, consent for additional work is granted subject to conditions. Conditions can be, for example:
No authorisation will be granted for the performance of additional work:
Academic staff are obliged to provide the Board of the UG all information about financial interests they have in companies that they know to have a relationship with the University or the UMCG, see the Regulation on Additional Interests and the valorisation guideline Naar een goede waarde, 2009 of the NFU. It is only possible to have such an interest with permission from the Board of the University. This permission can be withdrawn in the event of changes in circumstances or insight or if any conditions are violated.
No consent will be granted if the financial interest in the undertaking:
If there is an additional interest, the scientific employee must fill in the additional activities form (which contains a section on additional interests) and send it to the dean via the head of their department. The dean ensures that permission is requested from the Board of the UG.
The UMCG endorses the GMH and the CGR. These regulations have been drawn up for some healthcare professionals, but the UMCG has decided that the guidelines for receiving gifts from and maintaining financial relationships with external private parties apply to all UMCG staff members. The webpage hoeblijfikonafhankelijk.nl helps determine which gifts are allowed. For payment of a sum of money, all activities performed under the UMCG role must be reported to the manager, and any payment must be made to the UMCG (for paid additional activities, see Additional work).
A special form of dependence arises when there are sponsored positions for scientific or support staff. If the funding for a UMCG position is not paid for by a public research funder or by UMCG/UG funds, but rather by an external party with an interest in the research, academic integrity and academic freedom must be contractually guaranteed. The holder of a sponsored position is also obliged to report this on their MePa.
In the case of large contracts with the same external party, whether repeated or long-term, the UMCG must take into account the dependence on the external party as a factor in deciding whether or not to enter or re-enter into this relationship. In these cases, there is a risk of academic freedom being affected because the financial and personnel stability of the department or the UMCG is at stake in the event of a change in the policy or the wishes of the financing party.
