Build data and R&D alliances

Use this when the partnership is about data or research rather than go-to-market. Start from the data or research asset, the counterparty (a company, a lab, a university), any existing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), material transfer agreements (MTAs), or licence drafts, and the intellectual property (IP) and compliance constraints.

Scope the alliance

Define the asset — a dataset, a model, a protocol, physical samples — the permitted uses, and what is explicitly out of scope.

Evaluation access gets dated terms and a conversion path to a licence. Nothing open-ended.

Draft the terms spine

Licence scope and fees, data-sharing rights, publication and IP ownership, confidentiality, term and termination.

Every clause routes to Legal before it leaves. There are no exceptions to that line.

Track compliance

One row per alliance: its agreements, the key dates (expiry, review, publication windows), the obligations due, and a red/yellow/green compliance grade.

Anything yellow gets a dated cure line with an owner.

Review the portfolio quarterly

Which alliances produced — papers, products, revenue — which stalled, and the renew, expand, or exit call per alliance with its evidence.

What you hand back

The alliance scope, the terms-spine draft, the compliance tracker, and the quarterly portfolio read.

Fallbacks

No existing drafts means starting from owner-stated intent marked INFERENCE, with Legal review as the first step. No compliance owner means the owner holds it until one is named.

No term sheet, licence, material transfer agreement, or publication approval goes out without your explicit yes.