Admin control

Responsibility for the project

The budget officer who concludes a research contract bears, in addition to the responsibilities of Art. 26 of the Financial Regulations, the responsibility for concluding a contract in accordance with the guidelines and for complying with contractual obligations, even if the VPR or VPKC and the head of the department or ETH transfer have co-signed the contract. This includes the obligation to ensure that:

the provision of all services of ETH Zurich guaranteed in the contract, including any reporting obligations, financial obligations or own contributions, is guaranteed; the execution of the contractually regulated project is compatible with all other projects that are carried out within the sphere of influence of the budget officer at ETH Zurich and that there is no overlap;
the implementation of the contractually regulated project is ethically and morally justifiable;
ETH Zurich has all rights to the pre-existing intellectual property and any intellectual property resulting from the project that the contracting party has rights to according to the contract. This includes the obligation to ensure that students or other non-employed project members of ETH Zurich assign the corresponding rights to intellectual property from the project in advance, e. g. by signing a corresponding project employee agreement;
the confidentiality obligations and the defined procedure for planned publications - including those of participating students - are adhered to;
all permits required for the project are in place and that all applicable laws and guidelines are complied with. These include, among other things, approvals from the Ethics Committee for clinical trials, compliance with export control laws (Swiss and any foreign countries), procurement regulations, data protection regulations, anti-corruption laws, environmental and occupational health and safety regulations.

Signature Regulation

Sole signature of budget manager

The responsible budget manager signs alone

Contracts with payments or material resources below a total value of CHF 50,000 (excluding license, option and assignment agreements, Innosuisse Agreements on intellectual property and use rights and EU contracts)

Contracts with the SNSF
Funding Agreements with innosuisse
Material transfer agreements with academic partners
Nondisclosure agreements.

The proxy provision of Art. 27 of the Financial Regulations does not apply to the signing of research contracts (exception: Material Transfer Agreements).

Additional signature of the head of the department or a member of the Executive Board of the school

Where a professor intends to sign a contract that shall run beyond his retirement date, the signature of the head of the respective department is required in addition to the signature of the emeritus professor.

Approval by the VPR or the VPKC

The additional signature of the Vice President of Research or the Vice President of Knowledge Transfer and Corporate Relations is required in the following cases:

Contracts with funding of CHF 50,000 or more
All license, option and assignment agreements
All Innosuisse Agreements on intellectual property and use rights
All contracts with contributions of US-American funding institutions to ETH Zurich research projects
For research contracts in which the budget officer has a conflict of interest vis-à-vis the contracting party.

Approval by ETH transfer and the Research Contracts Group

MTAs with commercial partners additionally require the signature of an employee of ETH transfer IP & Licensing (where ETH provides material), or from the Research Contracts Group, respectively (where ETH receives material).

Sole signature by the Vice President of Research

The Vice President of Research signs all agreements with the EU, independently of the amount of funding.

SAP-Project and PSP-Element openings

SAP-Project and PSP-Elements are opened by the Finance Desk.

Opening are made by the Finace Desk upon request from the budget officer for:

research contracts with a total amount of less than CHF 50,000
Innosuisse research projects
SNSF Projects (SAP-Projekt and PSP-Elements for “Nebenbeitragsempfänger”)

For this purpose, a SAP-Projekt/PSP-Elements opening form with a copy of the fully signed contract must be submitted to the Finance Desk. In the case of Innosuisse projects, copies of the Agreements on intellectual property and use rights and the Innosuisse application must also be submitted. The Finance Desk files these documents in the eDossier Projekt/PSP.

A request by the budget officer is not required for
research contracts of more than CHF 50,000
SNSF projects (SAP-Projekt/PSP-Elements for “Hauptbeitragsempfänger”)
Agreements with the EU
Contracts with contributions from US funding institutions
License, option and assignment agreements.

Invoicing and execution of the Project

Invoicing in connection with research agreements is in the responsibility of the budget officer. In the case of license, option and assignment agreements, this is handled by ETH transfer.

Archiving of Agreements

The budget officer is responsible to ensure that his contract documents are archived safely. For contracts that are (co)signed by the VPR or VPKC, the original documents must be submitted to ETH transfer, the Research Contracts Group or EU GrantsAccess for archiving.

Entry of contracts as eDossier Project/PSP in ETHIS

Contracts in the field of research in connection with a SAP-/PSP-Element must be deposited with the relevant SAP-/PSP-Element as a pdf file in the eDossier Project/PSP of ETHIS, as soon as they are fully signed. This obligation to deposit also applies to amendments and renewals of contracts. For contracts that are (co)signed by the VPR or VPKC, this deposition is ensured by ETH transfer, the Research Contracts Group or EU GrantsAccess. For all other contracts, the budget officer is responsible for deposition. To this end, the budget officer sends a corresponding pdf file to the Finance Desk, together with all the necessary information.