Step 4. Who should sign the agreement?
When the agreement's final version has been reviewed by the Legal unit, the agreement must be signed before the research project starts.
The agreement can't be signed by the academics themselves and requires signatures from all parties and in some cases from other stakeholders.
The Head of the Research Support Office (RSO) together with the Head of a department makes decisions for:
- Funding agreements and applications to the EU, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other foreign donors
- Cooperation agreements with other grant recipients, possible additions and changes to existing applications and agreements
Who should sign the agreement?
According to the Delegation rules for KI:
- Head of the Department and in some cases the Head of Administration
- Principal Investigator (PI)
- International funding agencies also require the signature of the Head of the RSO together with in the Head of Department
In some cases, the University Director or President also should sign the agreement together with the Head of the Department.
Digital signatures
Guidelines for digital signatures
- Agreements can be signed digitally according to KI’s decision making procedures and Delegation Rules
- People signing the agreement should do it in the correct order
- Everyone should use the same type of e-signature service
- A combination of e-signature and manual signatures in the same document is not possible
- Head of Administration can guide you through the signature process
If you collect manual signatures (not digital), then remember to print a few copies of the agreement so that there is a separate copy for signing by each party.
Researcher consent
All researchers involved in the project and described in the agreement must sign a Researcher consent form, assuring they have read and understood the terms and conditions of the agreement and that they will comply with them.
Register and archive
Both the signed agreement and the consent form should be registered (Dnr) and archived by your department.