Partnership Invitation and Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference

Named Partners are by invitation only and provide valuable and expert advice on the alignment of the project with developments and practice within their industry sector, their connection to higher education and to wider society.

The Named Partner’s role is to support and, where possible, strengthen the project’s work and outputs.

In return, Developing Business-Aware Academics will work to provide opportunities for mutual value to assist our Named Partner achieve their own linked business objectives and insights, through the sharing of our evidence-based research insights and participation in related agreed activities.

Named partner benefits include:

• Early access to project research insights and reports
• Help shape future talent pipelines in your sector
• Connect with our community through collaborative events and networking
• Co-develop training content to educate and inspire
• Connect with world-leading research talent
• Harness expert voices to shape future policy decisions
• Increase your visibility to researchers and funders with your logo on our website, materials and reporting

Roles and responsibilities

Developing Business-Aware Academics is a 4-year UKRI/Research England-funded project (2023-2027).

Our Project Director is Professor Alison Truelove who is responsible to the funder (Research England) for the progress and success of the overall project.

Alison is supported by our DBAA Project Team, detailed on our website, here.

As our project is time-limited and reliant on partner contribution, DBAA requests that at least 2 named individuals from your organisation are committed to collaborate with the project, to allow for continuity should any individual leave or move role within their organisation.

Named individuals will be added to our stakeholder contact list in line with our data privacy policy and will be the point of contact with the project.

Each Named Partner will have a named person within the DBAA team, who will be their primary contact, but meetings may be held with one or multiple members of the working team.

Some of the proposed activities we may ask of our Named Partners may include:

• Supporting the project in achieving its objectives, including acting as ambassadors to highlight and endorse the project through their own networks.
• Discretionary membership of our advisory board.
• Providing representation, when appropriate, at DBAA events or on speaker panels.
• Hosting, or inviting DBAA team members to, industry and/or networking events relevant within the scope of the project.
• Advising and working in collaboration with the project to understand industry-specific challenges and, where appropriate, helping to co-create and test potential solutions and approaches.

Meeting frequency and structure

The Named Partner, along with the DBAA team, will decide the appropriate frequency of meetings, events and/or other activities in line with their availability and any planned programme of events.

Meetings are anticipated to be held online via Teams or Zoom; however, opportunities for face-to-face meetings and partner networking events will also be iteratively developed as part of the programme.

The DBAA working year runs from July-June with an annual report to Research England (our funders) at the end of each project year.

Use of logo and brand guidelines

As Named Partners, the project plans to use your organisational logo, within your brand guidelines, on our website and appropriate materials.

In return, Named Partners may use our project logo and branding, with approval, within the Developing Business-Aware Academics Brand Guidelines (available on request).

Communications

With your consent, we will announce our partnership on our website and social media channels. We would be grateful if you could provide a short supporting quote and, if relevant, put us in touch with your comms team so we can coordinate with them prior to publication.

Sustainability

Developing Business-Aware Academics is committed to sustainability and will produce printed materials only where necessary for project objectives. It is anticipated that most of our collateral will be developed as online resources. As part of the University of Exeter, we also subscribe to the university’s sustainable travel policy as outlined here.

Documentation

These Terms of Reference outline the desire to create a collaborative, transparent and mutually beneficial partnership. However, any NDA, MOU or similar documentation that the Named Partner wishes to propose, or that DBAA deems to be needed to protect developing IP, will be discussed and instigated under separate cover at the appropriate time.

Any participation where either party offers funded activities, or contracted services, to the other will require the completion of, and compliance with, the relevant organisational legal structures and documentation. However, it is not anticipated that this would change the scope of these Terms of Reference in outlining the aims and objectives of partnership.

Data security and compliance

All Named Partner contact details will be stored in a secure database in full compliance with GDPR regulations and the University of Exeter’s information governance policy. Access to this database will be strictly controlled to ensure confidentiality and data protection.

Any transfer of Personal Data (as defined under the UK GDPR) shall first require a legally binding data sharing agreement between the parties. For the avoidance of doubt, no Personal Data is to be transferred until such agreement is in place between the parties.

Meeting and conversation notes

Any notes or records from meetings or conversations will be securely stored on a SharePoint site with restricted access permissions. These notes may be shared internally with the Developing Business-Aware Team solely for the purpose of informing project direction, development, and reference.

Sharing of information

Meeting or conversation notes will be made available to the respective Named Partner upon request. Occasionally, we may wish to use insights or perspectives for general communication purposes. However, we will always seek explicit permission from the Named Partner before sharing any case studies, information, or perspectives. Any confidential or commercially sensitive information will be stored in a secure SharePoint folder, accessible only by the Project Director, Project Manager, and Project Coordinator.

Monitoring and review

These Terms of Reference will be reviewed by the Project Manager, in conjunction with the wider team, and approved annually.

Confidentiality

Each party undertakes that it will not use, divulge or communicate to any person, except to its professional representatives or advisers or as may be required by law or any legal or regulatory authority, any Confidential Information concerning the business or affairs of the other party which may have come to its knowledge as a result of entering into this partnership and each of the parties shall use its reasonable endeavours to prevent the publication or disclosure of any confidential information.

For the purposes of this agreement, “Confidential Information” shall mean all information (of whatever nature and however recorded or preserved) disclosed by one party to the other, which: (a) is marked as or has been otherwise indicated to be confidential; or (b) derives value to a party from being confidential; or (c)would be regarded as confidential by a reasonable business person; except to the extent that such information is already in the public domain at the time of disclosure or enters the public domain otherwise than by a breach of any obligation of confidentiality.

General

Each party is responsible for its own costs incurred in connection with this partnership unless otherwise agreed (and those costs, for partners who have pledged costs in kind, will be monitored as part of our return to our funder).

Either party may end negotiations in relation to any matter envisaged by this agreement (including but not limited to any discussions relating to the partnership) at any time without having to give any reasons for doing so or incurring any liability to any other party.

This agreement and all disputes and claims arising out of, or in connection with them, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with English law. Each party irrevocably agrees to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts as regards any claim or matter arising under or in connection with this agreement.

This agreement is for the benefit of the parties and is not intended to benefit, or be enforceable by, anyone else.

This agreement is not intended to be legally binding, other than the Confidentiality, Termination, General and Data Security and Compliance sections, which the parties intend to be legally binding.

Termination

This agreement can be terminated by either party at any time on 30 days written notice and, unless specifically renewed by the parties, will automatically terminate 3 years from the date of agreement.