Analyse survey data to find common practices in collaboration
Identify best practices in collaboration
Map and continue the development of a Legal Framework for e-Research
The project will survey researchers and research centres throughout Australia to provide data on the impact e-Research is having on research and innovation. The survey will gather information on the types of legal agreements, if any, that exist between researchers in these environments. We aim to work with established and emerging e-Research communities in this endeavour.
Analyse survey data to find common practices in collaboration
The data from the survey will be used to map out common practices for the legal relationships formed in collaborative groups. For example, what types of terms are used in non-disclosure agreements or material transfer agreements or data access agreements.
Identify best practices in collaboration
The analysis will provide a means to identify systems for collaboration that are currently in use. We will examine which models have been effective and how they can be integrated with legal frameworks.
Map and continue the development of a Legal Framework for e-Research
The project will identify, analyse and model the myriad of legal problems that are now surfacing. Key legal issues include intellectual property rights of users of the systems, as well as suppliers of software and hardware for such systems, licensing issues relating to intellectual property, contractual commitments, privacy, confidential information (trade secrets), and even tortious liability of contributors and service providers. Many of these issues can be solved by reconceptualising and reinvigorating the current frameworks for research collaboration in a way that can facilitate rapidly forming, worldwide, distributed and at times serendipitous secure “knowledge communities”. This part of the project will require us to work closely with established and emerging (e.g. NCRIS priority capability areas) e-Research communities in Australia and overseas and organisations that are promoting e-Research such as OECD, UNESCO and CODATA. We will also be in close contact with Dr Michael Spence at Oxford University, one of the few lawyers worldwide to have started mapping out this area, and John Wilbanks CEO of Science Commons, an international project based at MIT, which has started examining contractual frameworks for science communities. We will also liaise with the DEST MAMS project, which is looking at access authorisation issues across secure research communities.
