Collaboration Agreement

The update of the agreement is necessary because the rationale for projects to join the CA in the project grant agreements is different for each successive SNS Call.

• For Call#1 projects are required to be part of a Collaboration Agreement under Articles 3&7 of their grant agreements.
• For Call#2 projects are required to be part of a Collaboration Agreement under specific text added to Part B of their grant agreements.
• For Call#3, and all future calls, projects will be required to be part of a Collaboration Agreement under specific text to be added to the Annex 5 of their grant agreements.

As the original CA did not envisage these three different conditions (it only covered the call#1 approach), the CA must be updated to include the Call#2 and all other future calls.

The SNS Initiative Collaboration Agreement creates the framework  for collaboration between all participants of SNS JU Actions (= Projects) via the SB, TB, & WGs as appropriate.

As such, all participants in SNS projects should accede to this Updated SNS Initiative Collaboration Agreement.

All participants here means Beneficiaries and Associate Partners.  Organisations participating as affiliates are not asked to sign as they are considered the responsibility of the Beneficiary to which they are affiliated.

Unfortunately, this Update does mean we have to ask all the participants of Call#1 projects to sign again as the original agreement they signed did not include the different requirement mechanisms used for Call#2 and all future calls.  This approach ensures all participants are in the same version of the agreement.

Only one signed copy is needed per organisation for all their participations in SNS JU projects.

So one PDF of the completed and signed (ink or digital signature) accession form of an organisation, as identified by their PIC number, is valid for all project participations for that across all calls.

Related Organisations (e.g. companies with subsidiaries in different countries)  participating under their own PIC numbers should sign individual accession forms.

The changes to the Collaboration Agreement are:

Opening 

– addition of a specific mention of “Associate Partners”

– refinement of 6G IA member role

Preamble:

Major revision to clarify role of agreement and the three Grant Agreement Obligations that require participants in different calls to accede to such an agreement.

(NOTE:  this is the main reason for the update of the agreement)

1. DEFINITIONS:

– addition of Associate Partner definition

– addition of SNS Action definition

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

2. PURPOSE OF THE COLLABORATION AGREEMENT

– addition of the three Grant Agreement Obligations

– addition of paragraph 2.3 ensuring the Grant Agreement is the dominant contract

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

3. GOVERNANCE OF THE COOPERATIONCOLLABORATION AGREEMENT

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

4. IPR and ACCESS RIGHTS

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

5. LIABILITY:

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

6. GOVERNING LAW AND DISPUTES

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

7. MISCELLANEOUS

– reference to replacement of previous agreement

– addition of paragraph in 7.4 ensuring the Grant Agreement is the dominant contract

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

Annex 1

– small corrections to ensure correct & consistent terminology and improved references.

Yes,  there is a PDF copy available here based on a comparison of the old and the Updated SNS INITIATIVE COLLABORATION AGREEMENT 2024.

Disclaimer:  this comparison was produced retrospectively using word and inherits any limitations of that tool.

Redline/Track changes version can be downloaded here.

For call#2 projects, you should sign as soon as possible to fully participate in the Steering Board, Technology Board and Working Group activities of the SNS Initiaitve.

For call#1 projects we also ask you to sign as soon as possible as we plan to migrate from the current agreement to the Updated CA by the end of Summer 2024.

The SB and TB rules will be flexible during the transition but once the majority of Call#1 and Call#2 projects have acceded to the Updated CA, we will have to consider how to manage any Call#1 projects who have not joined the Updated CA.