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Guide to Thesis Data Management, Data Protection and Research Ethics

Laurea thesis agreement

Laurea has its own thesis agreement template, which has been developed from the common thesis agreement for universities of applied sciences. The thesis agreement must be downloaded to your own computer and signed by your working life representative. At the same time, provide the working life representative / commissioner with the general terms and conditions of the contract as well as the workplace feedback form and, if necessary, also a material release agreement.

The Laurea thesis agreement template consists of the following parts (material can be found in the Laurea student intranet):

A good working life partnership involves a discussion about how the partnership is progressing and what it involves.  Have an open discussion with your partner about the stages of the thesis and its content. Read more information on Thesis agreement package.

 

What does the agreement cover?

What does the thesis agreement cover?

The following will be agreed upon in the thesis agreement:

Background material: This means any information, ideas, patents, inventions, methods, processes, solutions, apparatus, substances or software, documents and technical reports describing them, photographs, literary and artistic works and related intellectual property rights, etc., generated outside the thesis, which the partner owns or is entitled to grant rights to use and which the thesis writer uses in the thesis. This will be recorded in the contract.

Copyright: The student owns the copyright and other intellectual property rights to the thesis, results and research material.

The partner's rights to the results of the thesis: The partner receives from the student a parallel, free, and permanent right to use the results published in the thesis in its functions.

  • The right of use does not include the right to modify or sublicense the published results.
  • In addition, the collaborator may reproduce copies of the results published in the thesis and distribute them to its collaborators for marketing purposes.
  • In this case, the partner must state that the results published in the thesis belong to a thesis carried out at Laurea University of Applied Sciences and at the same time indicate the name of the author of the thesis.
  • The use of the name or other logo of Laurea University of Applied Sciences for commercial purposes is not permitted without its written permission.

Transfer of research data: If the student will transfer the research material/data to the commissioner, the research material shall be described in the thesis agreement. The research material has been anonymised and the research material to be disclosed does not contain personal data. The anonymisation will be carried out in accordance with the instructions in the  Finnish Social Sciences Data Archive Data Management Guidelines or in accordance with other appropriate procedures. The research material is disclosed in electronic form, unless otherwise agreed. The parties agree on a more detailed method of handing over the research material, taking data protection and data security into account.

The student may also transfer ownership of the research material, which means that after the transfer, the collaborator owns the result (e.g. an object created as a 3D model) and the student has no rights to the result afterwards, except the right to be credited as the author of the result as required by good practice. If the result involves an invention, the rights to the result will be agreed separately.

Why a Thesis Agreement?

Why a Thesis Agreement?

It is always a good idea to agree on common rules before starting the thesis.

If the thesis is project-based or commissioned by a working life representative, a written agreement with the working life representative will be concluded at the planning stage of the thesis.

The thesis is project-based when it has been agreed in writing and one of the following conditions is met:
  1. Working life representative pays for the work either for the university of applied sciences or for the student making the thesis.
  2. The thesis is supervised by a representative of working life
  3. The working life representative intends to use the results of the thesis in its own functions.

The thesis agreement must be preserved for the duration of the thesis process and for at least six months after its completion.

If the thesis is part of an RDI project with external funding from Laurea, the Laurea RDI project contract guidelines are to be used.

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