User Agreements

Work conducted at a user facility at a DOE laboratory is typically covered by a User Agreement – a formal legal agreement between the parties: the user (typically the user’s employing institution) and the host institution. User Agreements protect the interests of the user and the host by articulating the disposition of intellectual property and data rights from the work undertaken at the user facility.

Simplicity of access to our user facilities is a priority. The Department of Energy uses a template approach to promote best practices in agreement composition and consistency across the user facilities.  Most user facilities provide a sample User Agreement on their website.  If you are a new user from a major research institution it is likely that your institution has already established a User Agreement with several of our user facilities.  You may wish to contact the user facility or your local research administration officer for clarification and to obtain a copy of the applicable User Agreement.

Additional resources:

• DOE intellectual property class waiver for Non-Proprietary User Agreements
• DOE intellectual property class waiver for Proprietary User Agreements
• Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Technology Transfer & Intellectual Property
• About intellectual property class waivers