A service agreement is used when a McGill employee renders a service and provides the results to a client. The difference between a service agreement and a research agreement is that no intellectual input or value-added is provided by McGill and no publishable results are expected. As a result, the sponsor retains all rights to the intellectual property provided by the client and owns the results. Confidentiality of the client’s information is typically perpetual.
Example of this type of activity are testing/measurements on specialized equipment or the evaluation or analysis of materials or compounds. Universities benefit from government funds to purchase such equipment, which may often be unique within a region; it is normal that other users should benefit as well.
For more information on setting up a service agreement, please contact a member of the OSR Grants and Agreements team.