JISC

JISC projects are funded on the condition that project outputs are made freely available to the UK HE/FE community .Ownership of IPR is covered in the circular/ITT and letter of grant. You must ensure that project outputs don't third party IPR and obtain written permission for any intellectual property they incorporate.

Updated October 2011

As a general rule, JISC doesn't seek to retain IPR in the project deliverables created as part of its programmes. However, funding is always made available on the condition that project outputs are made available, free at the point of use, to the UK HE and FE community in perpetuity, and that these may be disseminated widely in partnership with JISC. You can find our more about the types of licences you might use here:

Creative Commons Overview Paper  (PDF)

 Overview of the ‘Openness’ of Licences to Provide Access to Materials, Data, Databases and Media  (PDF) 

Where JISC is funding the creation of a national service for the community, there may be a need for HEFCE (on behalf of JISC’s funding partners) to retain ownership of certain rights in order to maintain flexibility of future provision and availability of the service.

For outputs, such as reports or model strategies, a non-exclusive licence allowing |HEFCE on behalf of JISC or its representatives to utilise, archive and disseminate the work will be required. The principle is to make the outputs accessible to the education and research communities.

The ownership of IPR will be indicated in the funding circular/ITT and in the letter of grant. JISC might to seek ownership of IPR created by a project when:

• the main deliverable is a report – JISC normally indicates that the IPR in the report and any information gathered during the course of the study (and not already in the public domain) will become the property of HEFCE on behalf of JISC
• project results in a pilot service intended to become a full service when the project ends – JISC normally indicates that that the IPR created by the project will become the property of HEFCE on behalf of JISC, and that the institution(s) must agree to license their own IPR necessary to run the service after the project ends.

Other possible circumstances are outlined here:

JISC’s position on ownership of IPR will vary depending on the programme and the specific project. However, in all cases, the principle is to make the outputs free at the point of use  to the education and research communities. In some cases, it may be appropriate for institutions to exploit their IPR after the project end - this would be planned in consultation with JISC and must be without detriment to the JISC community.