Standard Research Agreement

The University of Guelph Standard Research Agreement (formerly, Grant Agreement or Grant-in-Aid Agreement) may be used for research projects that follow the three key elements of a Research Grant, which are:

  • There is no restriction or delay in the dissemination of the results of the research project;
  • Sponsor does not own or license intellectual property (data, copyright, trademarks, patents, etc.) resulting from the research project; and
  • There is no warranty with respect to standard of performance (e.g. Good Laboratory Practice, Good Clinical Practice) or the research results.

Sponsors must agree to the standard research agreement terms “as is”. If a research sponsor wishes to negotiate terms appearing in the standard research agreement, a Collaborative Research Agreement will be required. Please see a preview of the standard research agreement template.

Collaborative Research Agreement

The University of Guelph Collaborative Research Agreement is used for sponsored research which: i) is of mutual interest and benefit to the Principal Investigator (PI) and sponsor, ii) has been defined (the scope and allocation of funds) primarily by the PI, iii) is expected to lead to scientific knowledge or scholarly findings, and iv) the sponsor seeks to be governed by agreement terms that deviate from the three key elements of a Research Grant. Please see a preview of the collaborative research agreement template.


Any questions regarding the University of Guelph’s agreement templates, including identifying the appropriate template for your research funding needs may be directed to:

Research Support Services: resserv@uoguelph.ca