What is an Industry Sponsored Research Agreement (ISRA)?
An ISRA is a contract between a company and the University, specifying the conditions of the sponsorship. Negotiation of an ISRA is sometimes a balancing act. Academia champions the free and open exchange of ideas, results and data, while industry, concerned with competitive advantage, prefers to protect its information. Yet, with the right planning, project management, agreement structure and oversight, the interests of both parties will be in alignment and it is possible to collaborate with industry for mutual and lasting benefit. A key issue in an ISRA involves intellectual property. Equitable intellectual property provisions can take a number of forms depending on circumstances. Typically, Harvard retains ownership of an invention arising from sponsored research and offers the sponsoring company an option to negotiate for an appropriate commercial license to those inventions. Ownership by the University is an important issue that is sometimes contested by companies (i.e., the compa
