However, in some contracts, the scope of what is considered an invention of a company is quite broad. In his agreement with Raytheon, for example, a Raytheon employee is defined to “include staff who may also be a university student or have an appointment at university.” All of these collaborators` inventions “are and will remain the exclusive and exclusive property of Raytheon,” the agreement states. Some of the companies UMass Amherst works with have been identified as the country`s biggest polluters. UMass Amherst`s Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) has named Dow Chemical and German chemical producer BASF, which signed a research agreement with UMass Amherst in 2013, as two of the country`s largest water polluters. These two companies were also placed in the top 10 of the PERI Toxic 100 Air Polluters Index, and several other research partners at the university have also compiled this list: General Motors; Paint, coating and equipment company PPG Industries; and the French manufacturer of materials and solutions, Saint-Gobain. Students must also obtain a flu vaccine during the fall semester. participate in safe practices such as the use of hand sanitizers, prevention of facial touching, and sharing of food, beverages, utensils and similar items; and wash hands “with soap and water for at least 20 seconds often, especially after being touched in a public place or after blowing my nose, cough or belations, before touching food, and after using the bathroom,” according to the agreement. Laura Haas, the dean of the College of Information and Computer Sciences, for example, heads the steering committee of the university`s research agreement with IBM with an IBM representative. Haas worked at IBM for 36 years before joining UMass and currently owns shares in IBM, as indicated in the financial statement of interest she filed this year with the state ethics committee.

In some cases, researchers or university administrators who oversee a given research agreement were previously on that company`s salary list or on their own actions in the company. For one of UMass Amherst`s research agreements – with the arms company Raytheon – the Gazette filed a request for public registrations for all projects carried out under the agreement. In response, the University awarded 11 heavily edited commissions from Raytheon, which represented nearly $1.5 million in projects. In the 11 documents, entire pages of the proposed work are obscured. Students living on campus or using UMass campus facilities (libraries, rec centres, dining rooms, etc.) will need to sign a copy of this agreement at SPIRE in the fall of 2020, by July 31, 2020. If you have completed the agreement wrong or want to change your response, ask for a reset of the form. Summary of the provisional agreements for the renewal of the one-year contract (July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021) “It`s a research project, it`s not a job for recruitment, so the faculty member is the one who runs it and is responsible for compliance with the terms of the agreement,” Haas wrote. “I couldn`t influence the direction of research, nor could I influence IBM`s business.” In an email, Haas said she was sensitive to conflicts of interest, but there isn`t one when it comes to the research agreement with IBM, which was “ongoing” long before I got to UMass.

It added that it was not cooperating with the IBM research group, which was a party to the agreement, and that its role on the steering committee was “mostly pro forma”.” While students are advised to avoid overcrowded spaces, the agreement provides that students “do not organize or attend meetings and parties where social renunciation is not possible.