Funding Transition Updates: Please see Federal Transition Updates 2025 for the latest federal executive orders and research activities.
Collaborative Agreements
The George Washington University supports and encourages the development of research projects. Collaborative Agreements may be the right agreement when a GW Principal Investigator (PI) would like to collaborate and jointly perform research with another entity and when money is not exchanging hands. Each party contributes to collaboration by participating in the research project.
The Collaborative Agreement ensures that the research project, the roles and responsibilities of each entity, and the intellectual property rights of each entity are all clearly defined. Failure to have an executed Collaborative Agreement ahead of the start of the research project could result in significant liabilities and potentially impact intellectual property rights.
A Collaborative Agreement file Agreement Number in myResearch will reflect the following format: CA######## (example CA00005555).
Process
- The GW Principal Investigator (PI) initiates a Collaborative Research Agreement by creating a Collaborative Agreement in myResearch. Please use the Guide for Initiating Nonfinancial Agreements in myResearch to aid you in this process.
- Once the PI submits the Collaborative Agreement via myResearch and it receives a myResearch Agreement Number (example CA00005555), the Collaborative Agreement is assigned to an OSP Contract Officer (CO).
- The CO reviews the information provided in myResearch and reaches out to the PI with any questions, as needed.
- The CO acquires any relevant input and compliance approvals from the relevant internal stakeholders and negotiates the Collaborative Agreement directly with the outside entity.
- The CO notifies the PI when the Collaborative Agreement is fully executed, provided to the outside entity, and input into myResearch. At this time, the PI may collaborate with the other entity.
Resources
- Guide for Initiating Nonfinancial Agreements in myResearch (GW Login required, PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions
- If I am not faculty, how do I submit an agreement?
If you are not a faculty member, please have your faculty advisor submit the request on your behalf.
- If I do not have an agreement template, can I still submit my agreement?
OSP has approved templates that we prefer to use. Please check the box that indicates that the agreement will be internally generated when initiating the non-financial agreement in myResearch.
- What do I do if the outside entity has provided me specific instructions for communications?
If the outside entity has specific instructions on how to communicate with it, please make sure to provide these in myResearch when initiating and submitting your request.
Support
- For questions regarding the process, the assigned Contract Officer is identified in the agreement record in myResearch.
- For additional questions, you may also send an email to the osp_contracts
gwu [dot] edu (osp_contracts[at]gwu[dot]edu).