Contract obligations and responsibilities
The Chief Investigator (CI) is responsible for all obligations that are outlined in the project agreement. In particular The CI needs to ensure that:
- The project is delivered in accordance with the terms of the agreement.
- Correct ethics approval is obtained prior to the commencement of the project;
- All reporting and milestone obligations are adhered to. The Research Office will send reminders via email when reporting and milestone obligation are due;
- All compliance obligations are adhered to, such as obligations regarding publications, confidentiality and acknowledgement of the funding body;
- All intellectual property requirements are adhered to including, where required to comply with the agreement: notifying the Research Office of any students or non-employees involved that have not assigned their intellectual property to the University; or keeping an intellectual property register;
- All project funds are expended in accordance with the activities and instructions outlined in the contract.
- Proper Insurance Cover is provided for the project;
- To disclose any conflicts of interest that might arise during the project, in accordance with the agreement and the UTAS conflicts of interest policy;
- If the contractual terms of the agreement need to be varied, the CI needs to inform the Research Office. If required, the Research Office will vary the agreement on the CI’s behalf;
- If a CI is leaving UTAS, it is important that you contact the Research Office who will assist in determining if funding needs to be transferred;
If you have any questions regarding your research or consultancy agreement, please contact your School/Institute/Centre’s Funding Officer. This will ensure that the report to be signed by the DVC-R and posted (if required).
The Research Office submits all milestone reports to the funding body. Milestone tracking is also conducted by the Research Office and the CI will receive ongoing automated reminders if the deliverable is overdue. Overdue milestones will be escalated to the CI’s Head of School or budget centre. Please advise the Research Office when each deliverable is met.
A number of milestone reporting templates and specific funding body reporting schedules and instructions (ARC, NHMRC, etc) are available here. For funding body milestone templates that are not available on the Research website, the reporting obligations will be stated in your contract.
