Research Services

Higher Degrees by Research - information for students

Higher Degrees Research in Organisations Collaborating with the University

La Trobe has research partnerships and alliances with organisations outside of the University. The collaborating organisations may be government departments, other public organisations (e.g. hospitals) or research organisations. You may have the opportunity to carry out your higher degree research within one of these partnerships.

The Conditions of Candidature for Higher Degrees by Research Procedure (currently waiting on Academic Board approval) provides for completion of an HDR within a research partnership.

Purpose

Research in a collaborating organisation has benefits for yourself as a candidate, the organisation and the University. It may provide you with the opportunity to do research that is not available anywhere else and will be an important step in your career, especially if you go on to be employed to further your research after completing your degree. The organisation you work with will benefit from your research and the University will further its aims of carrying out research and teaching research students. Collaborative relationships with outside organisations are important to the University for its relationships with the wider community and its research networks.

If you study for your research degree with a collaborating organisation, do not forget that you are a student and you are engaged in research training; while your research will have benefits for the collaborating organisation, you are not an employee of the organisation and your purpose is the completion of the requirements for your degree. (In rare cases an employee may complete a research degree at their place of employment. This will require careful management of the distinction between your duties as an employee and the resources and time you have to work on your research and study.)

Agreement

Just as if you were studying on campus, you need to consider carefully all arrangements for your research and study. The relationship between LTU and the outside organisation must be adequately explained to you. You should meet the staff you will work with in both the collaborating organisation and the University before agreeing to the carry out the research project and completing your enrolment. You need to agree who will be your supervisors and Research Progress Panel members (see below). Other considerations are the resources you will need and any issues of intellectual property and patents.

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Requirements

Doing your research as part of one of a collaborative relationships between the University and an outside organisation does not change your degree; the same requirements, policies and provision of resources apply. There may policies and procedures that the collaborating organisation requires you to observe, for example, their lab procedures or access to records.

Supervisors, Research Progress Panels (RPP) and other staff

Your principal supervisor will be a member of the University staff. However, a staff member of the collaborating institution may be a co-supervisor who works closely with you and knows your work in detail.

Meeting and reporting to your RPP applies as if you were studying on campus. Your RPP will include a full-time staff member of LTU and also, as with RPPs in general, the chair of your RPP may not to be your supervisor.

You will work with other staff in the collaborating organisation. You should meet those that you will work most closely with before you agree to the project and if staff responsible for the area in which you will work are not directly involved in your supervision you should meet them also.

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Resources

Undertaking research as part of a collaboration with an outside organisation will usually involve that organisation providing resource for your research and study. Those resource may include: office space and facilities including a computer; laboratory or studio facilities and materials; access to data, archival materials and the people/objects/materials that are focus of your research; and literature and library resources. Before starting your project you need to know how the resources you will need will be made available to you and any restrictions on their use.

When organising research with a collaborating organisation, you may need to consider any major changes that can be anticipated any time in your candidature. One question to ask is, do any of your supervisors or RPP members expect to be away for several months or more before you complete your research and thesis?

Ethics

If ethics approval is required, you must follow both the appropriate University procedure and the collaborating organisation's procedures for obtaining it.

For Human ethics, if the collaborating organisation has approved your project you should complete an Application for Multi-Centre Human Research with an External Chief Investigator. You may also wish to refer to the ethics page.

Similarly for animal ethics if the collaborating organisation has approved your project you should complete an Application for Multi-Centre Research with an External Chief Investigator. You may also wish to refer to the ethics page.

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Intellectual Property (IP) and Patents

Normally the University has no claim to ownership of the intellectual property (IP) or inventions students create in the course of their studies and research.

Carrying out research as part of a collaboration with an outside organisation may require that you agree to assign your rights to Exploitable IP arising in the course of your research or studies. Exploitable IP is IP which may be the subject of Commercial Exploitation - generating financial or other commercial gains - by the University or collaborating organisation, including inventions, plant varieties and copyright in computer programs. An agreement about IP or patents will be explained to you and completed before you agree to the research project and your enrolment.

If you do not have an agreement about patents and exploitable IP and you make a discovery, you have an obligation to disclose it to the University in order to enable the University to examine the circumstances of the invention and to confirm that no other members of the University or the collaborating organisation (or any other third parties) have an interest in the invention.

You may wish to refer to LTU Intellectual Property Policy (132002P).

Similarly, if your research involves confidential information you must agree to and observe the collaborating organisation's restrictions on its use.

Documentation

It is useful to have the agreements and pertinent the information for an HDR research project carried out under a collaborative arrangements summarised in a single document which may include:

• names and contact details of your supervisors and RPP members
• University personnel such as your Head of School and Postgraduate Coordinator
• details of the external organisation and staff managing and leading the research collaboration
• what resources will be available from the collaborating organisation
• what La Trobe University will provide
• any authorisation that will be required
• any agreements about Intellectual Property, patents or confidential information

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