Hi all. I hope you are having a nice Sunday. I was wondering if I could get some advice here about Confidentiality Agreements. I will be commisioning a number of artists to produce work for a project as part of my PhD research. There are two things I am worried about. The first thing is this: I will need to give all of the applicants a project brief before I select the individual artists that will take part. Is there any way I can protect my project by asking all the applicants to sign an agreement? The second thing is, I will be telling a great deal about my PhD to the selected artists. I assume I should be asking them to sign a Confidentiality agreement. Am I right? Do I need to prepare this myself? Does anyone have any experience of a similar situation? Thank you in advance.

Nobody replied to my question . I wonder if my thread is going to be moved under the "Removed Threads" section by the moderators and get a red text saying "Why Removed? Thread is unlikely to be answered because nobody cares".

awww 404 big hug, I care but I don't know?

this would be something you need to ask your supervisor... sorry cannot help

Thank you H. / The reason I asked the question here is because I assumed there would be some people who experienced something similar as it is a forum for PhD students who may had to deal with all sorts of IP and copyright issues. But still... thank you for your replies.

The usual case is that, as a student/staff member, you sign away your IP to the Uni on joining. In which case they will be keen to protect your/their IP! Someone at the Uni will be able to advise you and hopefully your supervisor can point you in the right direction.

Thank you all. I am funded by HEFCE. I will look at their site now to see if there are any contacts I can get. I couldn't get hold of my supervisor yet, as this is one of the busiest months for him. I know he is familiar with the IP rules with regards to my agreement with the uni. I guess you are right, I should contact my research office again. I have been looking at the own-it site to get some ideas of artist contracts but because I am not a business, their advisors cannot help me apparently.

By the way, I don't live in the same city as my University. That is the main reason why I have a problem in contacting people at uni. I have to rely on their availability, instead of just popping into their offices to chase them up.

Hi 404,

It does sound like you need a confidentiality agreement. I don’t think that your technology transfer / IP office would be interested in this as they will mainly be concerned with protecting academic IP against commercial exploitation, i.e. applying for patents and licensing these out. You should seek advice from the administrative department within your university which deals with postgraduate support. They should be able to provide you with a contract without much difficulty. If you have trouble getting hold of anyone let me know and I can provide some model contracts that will just need to have certain details amended.

Thank you DangerousDave. Somebody at my research office put me in touch with the legal person who drew up our University IP policy. If that fails, I will do what you say, it sounds like a good idea. If I can't get anywhere with the Admin people, how can I contact you for those model contracts? Shall I open a new thread with your name on the title on the forum, or will you be keeping an eye on this thread? Thank you again.

I'll keep an eye on this thread. If you need any further help just shout.