Science engagement organisations regularly sign contracts with each other, for instance to collaborate on exhibitions. Each partner has its own practices when it comes to contract policy and drafting, reflecting its specific working culture and processes. A contract sets a bridge between partners despite these differences and tries to bring a shared understanding of the future cooperative process.

Many interests are at stake: pooling resources and risks, sharing costs, defining responsibilities, funding projects, boosting brands, etc. The more we have to do together, the more we have to specify borders between our respective roles. The contracting phase is sometimes perceived as unnecessarily long and repetitive. Are there ways to be more efficient together?

More about this session: Other questions under consideration will be: Can we identify different types of contracting reflecting different types of partnerships? Can we define potential model agreements of common understanding in order to ease the organisation and conclusion of partnerships? What are the potential gains and obstacles? Join this session to exchange thoughts and experiences and start a discussion that will hopefully last beyond the conference.