• What is a Grant Agreement?
  
• What is a Consortium Agreement?
  
• What are Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)?
  
• What are Access Rights?
  
• What is Ownership?
  

What is a Grant Agreement?

The Grant Agreement is the contract between the European Commission and the Consortium, confirming the grant. In the so-called contract negotiations, the partners have to fill in forms, the so-called GPF's. The Negotiation Guidance Notes are the basis for the contract negotiations.

The Grant Agreement contains general information and agreements, e. g. regarding the project duration, the involved project partners, the project budget, the transfer of the pre-financing by the European Commission, the work programme and the reporting periods. The coordinating institution and the European Commission sign the Grant Agreement for the Consortium. Once these two signatures have been exerted, the Grant Agreement is legally binding and comes into force on the day of the last signature. Afterwards, all project partners accede to the Grant Agreement via signing the respective form, Form A (Annex IV to the Grant Agreement) and becoming contractual partners of the European Commission.

What is a Consortium Agreement?

The conclusion of a Consortium Agreement is another requirement of the European Commission. The Consortium Agreement is a contract between the project partners; the European Commission is not a partner of this contract. The Consortium Agreement administers the internal relationship of the Consortium: the structure of tasks of the management, the conditions for receiving payments, Rights of Use and Dissemination, Access Rights, Liabilities and Confidentialities. The rules of the Consortium Agreements may not contradict with the Grant Agreement at all. In case of a contradiction, the Grant Agreement rules out the Consortium Agreement.

What are Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)?

The European Commission published guidelines on the Intellectual Property Rights. These guidelines provide a good overview of the applicable IPR rules in FP7. It takes care of different issues and possible disagreements in the area of IPR. IPR are regulated in the Consortium Agreement.
IPR deals with the regulation of different aspects like:

• Ownership
• Use of results
• Access Rights
• Dissemination.
  

What are Access Rights?

Once partners join a research project, they usually already have their own know-how of data and knowledge which can be protected via the IPR. This so-called "Background" is similar to an investment which is brought into the project by one partner and made available/accessible to all others involved.  Furthermore, the project partners create new knowledge and data in the course of the project work, the so-called "Foreground". Within the project, the involved parties gain "Access Rights" to the Foreground and partly to the "Background". The Foreground as well as the Access Rights are regulated in the Grant Agreement – Annex II and in the Consortium Agreement. A clear separation of Background and Foreground usually is very difficult as they intertwine.

The protection of knowledge in research projects is a very important and critical aspect and gains more and more importance, in particular if a product shall(?) be developed within a project. Therefore, a clear definition of both terms, Background and Foreground as well as a clear regulation of the Access Rights are mandatory for the success of the project.

What is Ownership?

Ownership is the property right regarding know-how, data and other knowledge which was generated in the course of a project (Foreground), either by a single project partner or a number of project partners (Joint Ownership). The Ownership of Foreground is regulated like Access Rights in the Grant Agreement - Annex II as well as in the Consortium Agreement.