JISC

Annex to JISC Grant and Contract Letters for Projects

December 2011

1. JISC funds a wide variety of projects on behalf of its funding bodies. These projects include supporting studies where the main deliverable is a report, and projects where the deliverables include products or services as well as reports. These generic terms and conditions apply to all projects and define the responsibilities of the lead institution and its project partners.

Adherence to Project Management Guidelines

2. The institution and its partners must adhere to the project management guidelines. The guidelines provide initial advice on project planning, project management, the relationships between JISC programmes and projects, evaluation, and dissemination.However, the institution and its partners should refer to the designated JISC programme manager for details of how these guidelines are to be interpreted. The Guidelines will be updated from time to time, and the lead institution will be notified of any major changes. It is the responsibility of the lead institution to inform its project partners accordingly.

Submission of Agreed Deliverables

3. The institution and its partners must supply all deliverables specified in the agreed project proposal. The schedule for submitting deliverables must be included in the Project Plan and agreed with the JISC Executive. Any changes to this schedule must be agreed in writing with the JISC Executive.

4. Project deliverables are subject to approval by the JISC Executive, and the framework for approval is outlined in the Project Management Guidelines.

5. Project deliverables will be deposited in the appropriate JISC data centre or managed repository, where appropriate.

Core project document set

6. The lead institution must also supply a core set of documents to indicate how the project work will be planned and implemented, to report on progress, and to inform future auditing and evaluation. It is the responsibility of the lead institution to agree these documents with its project partners prior to submission.

7. The core project documents are listed below and further information about each document is provided in the Project Management Guidelines and by reference to the designated JISC programme manager.

8. Core project documents are subject to approval by the JISC Executive, and the framework for approval is outlined in the Project Management Guidelines and by reference to the designated JISC programme manager.

9. Core project documents will be deposited in the JISC records management system and/or project information management system so they are accessible to the JISC Executive.

Intellectual Property Rights

10. As a general rule, JISC does not seek to acquire or retain IPR in any outputs created as part of the project and/or service. IPR ownership shall therefore vest with you [and your partners, as laid out in your Consortium Agreement]. However, if this is not the case for the particular piece of work you are undertaking, the correct IPR position will be documented in the grant/contract letter.

11. The funding is made available on condition that outputs from the project are made available, free at the point of use (or ‘at cost’ where appropriate) and under Open Access or Open Source principles where possible, to the UK HE, FE and Research communities in perpetuity in accordance with JISC’s Open Access Policy and/or JISC’s Open Source Software Policy wherever possible.

12. A condition of funding is that you grant JISC, on behalf of HEFCE, an irrevocable, non-exclusive royalty-free licence in perpetuity to exploit the outputs in any way it sees fit, including enabling the JISC to use, archive, preserve and disseminate the outputs. This may include, where appropriate, the delivery of project outputs to the community under a suitable open access and/or Open Source licence. In all cases, JISC will also retain the right to modify or adapt the project outputs. The purpose of this is to give JISC the ability to ensure outputs are available to the UK education and research community for non-commercial use should you fail to fulfil this condition of funding. You further agree to ensure that any licence you enter into in order to acquire third party materials for the purposes of this project may legally be transferred to a third party, nominated by HEFCE, to enable such continued availability of outputs to the UK education and research community.

13. JISC may terminate this Agreement immediately without further obligation in the event of:

1. any breach of this Agreement which cannot be remedied or is not remedied within thirty (30) calendar days of you being requested to do so; or
2. any resolution being passed or petition being presented to wind up your business (otherwise than for reconstruction or amalgamation) or a receiver being appointed of the whole or part of your assets; or a failure to complete a satisfactory Consortium Agreement, where required, in the time required by your JISC project manager; or where, in the reasonable opinion of the JISC, any of the terms or conditions of funding have not been fulfilled

If termination occurs under any of these circumstances, all rights in any works created by you as a result of the funding shall revert to the JISC on behalf of HEFCE.

14. You [and your partners] must ensure that outputs do not infringe the copyright or any other Intellectual Property Right existing at the time the project is completed (including, but not limited to, database rights, moral rights, performers rights, unregistered or registered trade marks, patents, or registered designs) of any third party. Where necessary, copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights should be cleared before digitisation or incorporation into outputs begins. You must obtain written permission for any third party rights that you incorporate, using a standard clearance letter whose wording has been agreed with your JISC Programme Manager. You must also document all attempts to identify the owner of works where the rightsholders cannot be located (so-called 'orphan works'.) It is a condition of funding that you must discuss any orphan works you encounter with your JISC Programme Manager and must follow your programme manager’s advice regarding how to deal with such orphan works.

15. It is a further condition of grant that you respect the Moral Rights of those individuals who contribute to the project outputs and in particular requires that you (1) acknowledge them by listing the names of those individuals who made a significant contribution to the project outputs in such project outputs, (2) that the text or content of any outputs should be checked by those individuals before release.

16. JISC, however, reserves the right to acquire all Intellectual Property Rights, including, without limitation, copyright, database right, performers rights, patents and trade marks, whether registered or unregistered, in any works created by you as a result of the funding, as appropriate, either indefinitely or for a certain fixed period of time on behalf of HEFCE. JISC also reserves the right to request that all Moral Rights are waived. This ability to acquire the Intellectual Property Rights will only be used under exceptional circumstances and in any such case, JISC will explain in writing to you the reasons for the transfer.

Open Access

17. JISC supports unrestricted access to the published output of publicly-funded research and wishes to encourage open access to research outputs to ensure that the fruits of UK research are made more widely available. JISC firmly believes in the value of repositories as a means of improving access to the results of publicly-funded research and is investing significantly in this area. A national support project is available to help institutions develop repositories and share practice

18. JISC requires that all project or service outputs and the full text of all published research papers and conference proceedings arising from the funded work to be deposited into an institutional or subject open access repository. Deposit should include appropriate bibliographical metadata relating to said articles, and the deposit should be completed within six months of the first publication date of the paper. JISC mandates the deposit of the native version (Word, PPT, etc.), with PDF as well if wanted, but certainly with a format from which usable xml can in principle be derived (not PDF).

19. Which version of the article should be deposited depends upon publishers’ agreements with their authors but JISC mandates that articles should be made available through publishers that adopt the RoMEO 'green' approach as a minimum. Authors should go to another journal if the journal chosen does not adopt the RoMEO 'green' conditions.

20. Jorum is a free national repository that provides a long-term solution for hosting and registering the availability of learning and teaching materials. It contains two collections each supporting a different type of licence for use. JorumOpen provides access to resources licensed under Creative Commons that are free to anyone worldwide to use; JorumUK provides access to resources from those who prefer to share their work only within UK Further and Higher Education institutions. Deposit into both collections is, initially, by staff only in UK Further and Higher Education. Information about each collection can be found on the Jorum website. It is mandatory that all learning and teaching materials produced by JISC projects and services should be represented (deposited or linked to) in JorumOpen together with the appropriate metadata. JISC strongly encourages use of Jorum by all JISC-funded projects.

Open Source

21. It is highly desirable that any software components of the outputs are released under appropriate open source licences to ensure that they can also be freely shared with organisations and communities with which the JISC has close working arrangements, see JISC’s Open Source Software Policy and advice from JISC's Open Source Software (OSS) Watch. 

Adherence to Standards

22. The institution and its partners must use the technical standards stipulated by JISC and where unstipulated open standards wherver possible. Any deviation should be justified in the proposal and any alternative be designed with re-use by others in mind. Ease of interoperability between systems is key to the provision of next generation technologies for education and research, and projects are expected to work with JISC to address this issue. It is the responsibility of the lead institution to inform its project partners accordingly. Relevant standards can be found in the JISC Standards Catalogue

Charging

23. Funding is made available on the condition that the institution and its partners shall make available deliverables developed by the project free of charge to the teaching, learning, and research communities during the period of funding, except for a handling and/or usage charge which must be agreed in writing with the JISC Executive.

Programme Meetings and Events

24. Programme meetings and other events are organised by JISC to brief project staff and share knowledge. Two major programme meetings are held per year, and attendance at programme meetings is mandatory. Projects should allocate staff time to participate in programme activities, and the Project Management Guidelines provide guidance on days per year to allow. The project will be provided with a schedule of meeting dates.

25. Projects should also allocate time to liaise with the Programme Manager on a regular basis, and institutions should provide access to the Programme Manager at any reasonable time.

Dissemination

26. The institution and its partners must commit to disseminating and sharing learning from the project throughout the community. The institution and its partners must develop a Dissemination Plan as part of the overall Project Plan and report on dissemination activities in Progress Reports and the Completion Report. Further information about dissemination is available in the Project Management Guidelines.

Project website

27. The institution and its partners must create a web page and web site to explain the project aims and objectives and to disseminate information about project activities and results. The Project Management Guidelines give guidance on the scope, content, and design of websites.

28. Where appropriate, project deliverables and core project documents may be posted on the project web site. As the project web site is primarily a dissemination vehicle, deliverables and documents posted are considered to be copies, and the masters will be deposited in the appropriate repository.

29. The lead institution or one of its partners must agree to host the web site on their server for a minimum of 3 years after the end of the project and to assist JISC in archiving it subsequently.

Publicity

30. In any publicity material, for example project websites, news releases, presentations and face-to-face interviews, it is essential that JISC projects and services adhere to JISC's Brand Guidelines:  www.jisc.ac.uk/brand.  All JISC-funded projects and services need to carry the JISC logo on their websites and always include 'JISC-funded' when writing or speaking about their work.  JISC's preference is for newly funded projects, in particular, to carry the JISC corporate banner (logo included) at the top of their independent website pages - code for which is available from the JISC Communications Team via: brand@jisc.ac.uk.  If there are technical reasons preventing implementation, the JISC Communications Team should be informed and contacted for advice. 

Evaluation

31. JISC undertakes evaluation of its development projects and programmes to ensure that knowledge and results are shared with the wider community and to improve the development programme itself. Projects are required to participate in programme evaluation activities organised by JISC.

32. The institution and its partners are also required to undertake evaluation of their work. The institution and its partners must develop an Evaluation Plan as part of the overall Project Plan and report on evaluation results in Progress Reports and the Final Report. Further information about evaluation is available in the Project Management Guidelines.

Exit/Sustainability Plan

33. Funding is for a limited term as set out in the letter of grant. The institution and its partners must develop an Exit/Sustainability Plan as part of the overall Project Plan to document the planning needed to get the best value from the work that has been funded. This will include an assessment of what should happen to deliverables and options for sustainability after funding ceases. Where the institution and its partners wish to exploit deliverables on a commercial basis after funding ceases, they should submit a business plan with economic models that demonstrate how the product or service will be self-sustaining. Further information about exit/sustainability is available in the Project Management Guidelines.

Quality Assurance

34. The institution and its partners must put in place appropriate formal quality assurance procedures to ensure that deliverables are fit for purpose and comply with specifications, JISC guidelines on standards and best practice, and accessibility legislation. Projects must develop a QA Plan as part of the overall Project Plan describing the QA procedures they will put in place and supply evidence of compliance when deliverables are submitted. Further information about QA is available in the Project Management Guidelines.

Payment Schedule

35. The schedule of payments will be indicated in the letter of grant. If more than one institution is involved in a project or service, payments will be made to the lead institution. It is the responsibility of the lead institution to disburse the funds to its project partners.

36. Payment is conditional upon satisfactory progress with milestones and deliverables. The institution and its partners must supply deliverables and core project documents on schedule or subsequent payments may be withheld.

37. At the end of the project, any unspent funds should be returned to JISC unless a formal agreement is reached with the JISC Executive about how these funds may be spent to further support the work of the project.

38. For financial audit, the procedures of the lead or fund-holding institution will apply. In general, JISC does not intend to send financial auditors to projects. However, there remains the possibility that JISC's auditors may wish to audit projects. Project fund holders are required to make themselves available for a visit by members of the JISC Executive or nominees on reasonable notice.

Staff Development

39. Funding is for a limited term as set out in the letter of grant. Near the end of the project funding, institutions should inform project staff about career development opportunities. These might include information about job vacancies within the institution or opportunities for training and career guidance.

Compliance with UK and EU Legislation

40. The institution and its partners must comply with any UK or EU legislation or any international Treaty obligations currently in force or introduced during the timescale of the project that has implications for the conduct of projects or the deliverables/documents they supply. JISC will endeavour to inform the lead institution of relevant legislation and supply guidance for compliance. It is the responsibility of the lead institution to inform its project partners accordingly. Further advice and guidance is available from the JISC Legal Information Service email: info@jisclegal.ac.uk

Accessibility

41. In line with Government legislation and social inclusion initiatives, JISC is committed to providing resources that are accessible to a diverse range of users. In order to achieve this, JISC advise that all resources including the project web site meet good practice standards and guidelines pertaining to the media in which they are produced, for example HTML resources should be produced to W3C html 4.01 strict and use W3C WAI guidelines to double A conformance. Further advice and guidance is available from the JISC TechDis Service e-mail: helpdesk@techdis.ac.uk

Data Protection

42. The institution and its partners must accept responsibility as the data controller or Joint Data Controllers as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 (‘the Act’) for the personal data collected and processed as a result of this project. Neither HEFCE nor the funding bodies accept responsibility for any breaches of the Act which occur due to the actions of project staff or agents directed by them.

43. HEFCE is the recognised data controller for JISC. In line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, the institution and its partners hereby grant HEFCE permission to hold the names, job titles, and work contact details of project staff to enable administration of the programme that the project is part of and to keep project staff up to date with information pertinent to it.

44. The institution and its partners also grant HEFCE permission to hold these contact details as part of the main JISC Contacts Database and Project Information Management System.  The Project Information Management System is publicly available.  Contact details held within the Project Information Management System are also published on the project pages on the JISC web site (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/projects).  They will also be used to contact staff or send them information from other JISC sources relating to forthcoming events or initiatives which may be of interest.  It is the responsibility of the institution to ensure that project team members understand JISC's policy and inform the JISC Executive if they wish to have their personal details redacted (pso@jisc.ac.uk).        

45. This information is made available to the JISC Executive, staff within the Regional Support Centres and staff within other JISC-funded services and initiatives only for the purposes described above. Contact details held within the Project Information Management System are also published on the project pages on the JISC website. This data will be held until such time as the institution instructs HEFCE otherwise or for the lifetime of HEFCE.

46. Any institution which prefers that project details were not held as part of the JISC Project Information Management System or Contacts Database, or would like any further information about how this data will be processed, should contact the JISC Executive.

Freedom of Information

47. The institution and its partners should be aware that educational institutions are listed as public authorities under Schedule 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’). The information created by project staff during the course of the project and as described in their original bid is therefore covered by the provisions of the Act.

48. Neither HEFCE nor the funding bodies accept any responsibility for the project’s compliance with the Act for information held by the project staff. This is deemed to be the responsibility of their host institution(s).

49. HEFCE will comply with the terms of the Act for information relating to the project or programme of which it is part that is held by the JISC Executive. Project staff should therefore be aware that any contracts, information or communications in written form (including email) which are sent to the JISC Executive (including the Programme Manager) may be made available to the public on receipt of a valid request and unless covered by one of the classes of exempt information listed in Part 2 of the Act.