NDA's are often put in place without or before sponsored research
agreements. An NDA should be in place before faculty exchange ideas with
another entity. Our research office and/or tech commercialization office
negotiate nda's even when a sponsored agreement is not attached to the
nda.

Faculty are not authorized to sign nda's on behalf of Drexel. However,
faculty and any others that are to hold information confidential do sign
a read and understood statement that is made a part of the nda.
Depending on the circumstances, other folks may be asked to sign a
separate university agreement.

Be particularly careful about nda's that cover student projects not only
because of IP implications (some nda's deal with IP rights too), but
even more important, because confidentiality on a student's work may
well preclude publication that will squash the students ability to
publish a dissertation or other academic publication/disclosure required
for graduation.

Peggy Vigiolto
Associate Vice Provost
Office of Research
Drexel University
3201 Arch Street, Suite 100
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215-895-2311
215-895-6699 fax
xxxxxx@drexel.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On
Behalf Of sponsoredprograms
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:06 PM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] Nondisclosure/Confidentiality Agreements

Good morning-

I am sending a revised posting regarding Nondisclosure Agreements.  If
you have experience or information regarding how your institution
handles NDA's outside of the Sponsored Programs arena, I would greatly
appreciate your input.

Do you sign an NDA that is not related to a sponsored research
agreement?

Specifically, I am interested in situations where students are taking
part in consulting or research  projects with companies, either as part
of a class requirement or as an independent study project, and the
company requires that students and faculty sign a NDA.  My specific
questions are:

1.      Does the individual faculty member have authority at your school
to sign the form and have the students sign without seeking any review
of the NDA with anyone else at the university?

2.      Does the university require that faculty, students, and/or
representatives of the company sign a university form in relation to the
NDA?

Bonnie

Bonnie S. Bruno, MPA

Director, Sponsored Programs

IRB Administrator

Elon University

2610 Campus Box, Elon, NC  27244

Phone: (336) 278-6603 (336) 278-6606 Fax

www.elon.edu/sponsoredprograms

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