Administration

Home / Toolkit / Administration

Introduction

ERICs are recognised legal entities, with legal personality, and can enter into contracts. ERICs are allowed to acquire, own, and dispose of movable, immovable and intellectual property, conclude contracts and be a party to legal proceedings. Learn more on the Contracting page.

Because ERICs are quite diverse in nature, so are their insurance requirements. Every ERIC should have an idea of their risk register: what kinds of possible risks there are, and how should they respond to them (i.e. risk mitigation actions). Learn more on the Insurance page.

ERICs are at the core of research, education and innovation. They play a vital role in the advancement of knowledge and technology ­– and their exploitation. This is why Intellectual Property policies should be drafted as early on as possible in the lifecycle of an ERIC. Learn more in the Intellectual Property Policies page.

Q&A

The required insurance depends on the nature of the ERIC: whether it’s single-sited or distributed, the nature of its task and possible risks arising, as well as its mode of operation (virtual/physical). ERICs currently use a wide variety of different kinds of insurances.

Insurance

Contracting by ERICs is linked to its wider policies on procurement. Procurement policies can include general guidance with respect to principles like transparency, proportionality, and equal treatment. Procurement can also be treated together with tax exemptions.

Contracting

For distributed ERICs, three ways of contracting have been established

  1. ERIC concludes contracts on behalf of the nodes
  2. The nodes conclude the contracts themselves
  3. A named third party takes care of contracting on behalf of an ERIC, also known as an agent arrangement.
Contracting

The first step of establishing a solid policy relating to IP is defining the concrete things in your ERIC that need to be protected. What is the intellectual property created in or by your ERIC? How is it to be protected? The nature of your IP will affect what kind of IP policy best protects it – different law protects different forms of intellectual property rights.

Intellectual Property Policies

Contacts

Lorna Ryan
ESS ERIC HQ
Lorna.Ryan.1 (at) city.ac.uk