External organisations

FAQs

 

I am a contracts professional with an agreement for the University of Bristol – who do I send this to?

If the agreement involves finances or in-kind contributions, please send it to the relevant Faculty Finance Costing Specialist.

If the agreement is non-financial, please send it to research-contracts@bristol.ac.uk

I am an academic at another institution and would like to do some research in collaboration with the University of Bristol – how can I establish a relationship?

Find an academic who shares your interests here: http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/

I would like to use the University of Bristol’s research facilities - who should I contact?

Find and enquire about a facility here: https://research-equipment.bris.ac.uk/

What rate of profit does the University charge?

We are a not-for-profit organisation. We therefore aim to either recover our costs and/or derive other benefits consistent with our charitable role. If we do make a surplus on a particular project this is used within the University to enhance our capacity to achieve our purpose, which is to teach and to create new knowledge for the public good.

What is the difference between research and consultancy?

Research is about the creation of new knowledge. Consultancy is the application of existing knowledge to solve problems and answer questions.

What is the University's position on intellectual property?

IP is created through research and is essential to the University's sustainability. We therefore need the freedom to use the IP we create as a basis for further research. Peer-review publication is key to advancement of research and to the sharing of new knowledge. If you, as a funder, wish to preserve confidentiality of research results we are happy to do this by delaying publication until the IP is protected (by patenting, for example). The output of consultancy would, of course, belong to you, the client; normally with whatever degree of control you wish to have.

How would I benefit from sponsoring a PhD student?

The main purpose of a PhD project is to train the student in carrying out academic research. The University has a duty of care to the student to ensure that he or she has a substantial and sustainable programme of work maintained at a high intellectual level. Your sponsorship gives you access not only to the student, but to others in the research group, as well as members of staff. You will also have advanced visibility of the research results. You will also have an option for a licence for the commercial exploitation of the results. The terms of the licence will depend upon your financial and intellectual contribution to the project.

Does the University make its facilities available to external users?

We often take on contracts to develop new instrumentation, test facilities and techniques. We also supply specialist services that involve using existing facilities (for example, measurement of material properties, chemical analysis, wind tunnel testing). Occasionally we have clients making use of our labs. We often find that work of this kind leads to longer terms relationships and research programmes.