Contract research

According to the Bavarian Higher Education Act and the implementing administrative regulations, universities are expressly permitted to conduct research with third-party funding. This third-party funding is either public funds from national or European funding programmes or private funds.

The allocation of private funds can take place on the basis of a wide variety of circumstances and legal structures. Thus, the legal classification of the legal relationships with the private funders ranges from service/work contracts (e.g. contract research) to the establishment of a private BGB company (e.g. in the context of collaborations).

The Legal Matters Relating to Research and Knowledge Transfer Section supports all members of the university who are entitled to apply for third-party funding in the implementation of third-party funding projects, in particular with private third-party funders, with regard to the general legal issues that arise and within the framework of the drafting of contracts.

In addition, the Legal Matters Relating to Research and Knowledge Transfer Section is your point of contact for all intellectual property issues, such as copyrights and inventions.

To make it easier for you to get started with the processing of your third-party funded project, we offer you some templates that have already been adapted to the needs of the university. You will also find general information and the legal basis for third-party funded research.

Due to EU regulations that prohibit competition-distorting economic activity by higher education institutions (so-called separation calculation), it is mandatory to prepare a market-oriented order calculation for private third-party funded projects. This should be submitted to the Finance Division  for review prior to contract conclusion.

All documents linked to below are in German

Sample contracts

• Research and development agreement (document as Word file)
• Contract for the Transfer of Rights to Theses to the University (Word document)
• Declaration of Acceptance for the Transfer of Rights to Theses (Word document)
• Leaflet on external theses / doctoral theses

R&D declarations

• Declaration on the research and/or development project (German: FEV-Erklärung) Project leader
• Declaration of commitment for participants in a research and/or development project (German: FEV-Erklärung)

General information of the University on third-party funding contracts

• Third-party funding contracts and their processing (circular letter of 07 April 2004)
• Responsibility for invoicing and placing orders due to the assessment of economic activities under tax law (circular of 07 March 2003)
• Increase in the flat rate for overhead costs in the case of income from economic activities (circular of 14 May 2007)
• Further increase in the flat rate for overhead costs (circular of 16 July 2010)
• Tax and budgetary regulations in connection with economic activities (circular of 06 December 2004)

Legal regulations

• Third-party funding guidelines (21 August 2020)
• Law on Employees' Inventions (ArbnErfG)
• Bavarian Higher Education Act (link to the website of the Bavarian State Government)

Order calculation

• Letter from the President on order calculation from 11 December 2009
• Guideline separation calculation
• Scheme order calculation general (please scroll down to Forms and Templates)
• Scheme order calculation example (please scroll down to Forms and Templates)
• Explanation example order calculation (Word document)
• Community framework EU Commission
• WFKM letter on order calculation dated 23 February 2009
• Average personnel costs as of 1 January 2018