Gloucestershire-based Global engineering and scientific technologies company, Renishaw, presented at Praxis Unico's Research Contracts Conference this week.

Nikki Powell, Legal Counsel at Renishaw, went along to the annual event to share her knowledge and experience in managing collaborative research partnerships.

The event, held at Loughborough University, was aimed at university contracts professionals and designed to develop their technical knowledge and confidence in drafting, interpreting, and amending research contracts.

Nikki Powell shared her advice for using model research agreements and ran a workshop to educate attendees on how best to draft contracts with industrial sponsors. Attendees benefitted from tailored training to help improve the research contracts negotiation process. They were also directed towards helpful resources, including the government's Lambert toolkit.

Powell showed attendees how they can use model agreements as a starting point in collaborations. 

Nikki Powell said: "Collaboration is a key factor in Renishaw's success and we regularly work alongside university and industrial partners to develop innovative technologies. The Research Contracts Conference gave attendees a headstart for working with industrial partners.

"Universities and research institutions require skilled contracts staff to ensure that collaborative projects are delivered correctly. This can be a challenging task, and the parties to a collaboration must identify and agree objectives from the outset. The delegates gained an understanding of research contract negotiation, developed influencing skills and built specific technical and legal knowledge."