What is the difference between a consultancy, licensed consultancy and contract research?

Commercial research includes consultancies, licensed consultancies, and contract research activities that are performed by UOW staff or subcontractors and are approved by UOW. Find out more about commercial research at UOW.

Consultancies

A Consultancy is any project that involves an external agency buying the skills and expertise (pre-existing know how) of staff and/or use of UOW equipment to work on a specified project, with the approval of UOW to do so. Consultancies involve the application of existing knowledge and do not normally lead to the development of new IP. Income from activities of this nature is not normally included in DEST research income definitions.

Contract Research

Contract Research is research that is conducted at the request of and paid for by companies, agencies, or other organisations external to UOW, with the approval of UOW to do so. Such research is conducted on a contractual basis and may involve ownership, confidentiality and publication restrictions. Contract research involves a greater level of originality than a consultancy and will lead to the development of new IP and generally results in DEST-recognised research outputs.

Licensed Consultancies

A Licensed Consultancy is a consultancy for specific activities, that UOW has approved to run under its auspices, such that the same activities can be undertaken for a range of clients over a one year period with minimal administration. Examples of activities in this category include but are not limited to:

• chemistry mass spectrometry facilities;
• the drill rig in Geosciences;
• XRF equipment,
• training workshops on specific transnational crime prevention issues;
• provision of scientific reports on functional foods; and
• concrete testing in Civil and Mining.

The administration is reduced as only one Commercial Research Approval Form and Costing Pro Forma needs to be completed each year (so long as the activities are the same) and a standard non-negotiable contract covers these activities, which can be used with multiple clients.

Download:

• Commercial Research Approval Form (doc 109kb)
• Commercial Research Costing Pro Forma (xls 49kb)
• Commercial Research Costing Pro Forma - Engineering (xls 59kb)

Last reviewed: 14 December, 2007