ARTICLE 1 – OBJECTIVES OF THIS COLLABORATION AGREEMENT

ARTICLE 1 – OBJECTIVES OF THIS COLLABORATION AGREEMENT

1. 
   The general objective of this Collaboration Agreement is to contribute more effectively to understanding and resolving scientific issues in the field of biologic invasions within the context of the EASIN and to ensure that the outcomes generated under this Collaboration Agreement are utilized in ways most likely to benefit the public.
   

2. 
   This Collaboration Agreement will, in particular, have the following objectives:
   

1. 
   To extend the EASIN network of partners and further develop its tools and web services.
   
2. 
   To share and integrate data needed to address scientific, invasions management and policy questions.
   
3. 
   To promote mutual interest and improve co-operation efforts on biological invasions between data providers and data users.
   
4. 
   To deepen the understanding of the environmental, economic and social issues relating to biological invasions.
   
5. 
   To strengthen the EU policy on invasive alien species, i.a. through the support to risk assessing and through the development of an early warning system.
   

3. 
   In order to fully achieve the objectives of this Collaboration Agreement, the Parties will take the following actions:
   

1. 
   Participation of (to be included) in EASIN as a data provider
   
2. 
   Collaborate to establish an editorial board providing for long-term maintenance of the EASIN catalogue of Alien Species
   
3. 
   Harmonise Alien Species definitions and data formats and promote these to end-users internationally.
   
4. 
   Joint identification of tools and web services to be developed to improve accessibility to Alien Species data.
   
5. 
   Initiate and maintain a dialogue on matters of biological invasions, exploring possibilities for developing research projects of mutual interest.
   
6. 
   Exchange appropriate scientific and technological information, for example, through conducting occasional seminars and workshops.
   
7. 
   Work jointly to develop initiatives for obtaining, financing and implementing the research projects of mutual interest.
   

The Parties may identify any other action that they deem appropriate to achieve the objectives of this Collaboration Agreement.

1. 
   Each Party will be responsible for its personnel in relation to activities undertaken pursuant to this Collaboration Agreement. For the purposes of this Collaboration Agreement, ‘personnel’ shall mean all persons associated with one Party, including (i) employees, (ii) guest researchers, (iii) persons under contracts similar to employment contracts and (iv) any other persons whose actions can be reasonably attributed to that Party.
   

2. 
   When it is necessary for personnel from one Party to participate for brief periods in carrying out activities implemented by the other Party in accordance with the provisions of Article 1.3, the Parties shall conclude a separate agreement as regards the invitation of their personnel to perform work at the other Party's facilities. The agreement shall regulate their mutual rights and obligations, the conditions of co-operation to be provided by the personnel, and the terms under which the Parties authorise their respective personnel to participate. Invited personnel shall comply with the rules and working conditions of the host Party. Invitation of persons not directly associated with one Party, for example, persons associated with subcontractors, is not permitted.
   

3. 
   The host Party will assist, as much as possible, in meeting the personal and professional needs of the visitor, including access to institutional facilities within the context of the regulations in force at the host site.
   

4. 
   For the purpose of the implementation of this Collaboration agreement, each Party shall put in place policy that assigns to the Party all rights in any intellectual property generated by the Party’s personnel (or – in case of subcontracting – by the subcontractor or its personnel), so that the Party can efficiently assert ownership as required under Article 8 of this Collaboration Agreement. If the foregoing is not possible under the applicable law, the policy must ensure that the Party acquires other legal title to the intellectual property as close as possible to ownership; in that case, other provisions of this Collaboration Agreement shall be interpreted in a way to accommodate the changed legal title to the intellectual property. Upon a specific request of the other Party, the Party concerned shall provide in writing clarifications of its policy to assert the ownership or other legal title to the intellectual property.
   

1. 
   Any loss, damage or injury of non-nuclear origin suffered by one Party in connection with the performance of this Collaboration Agreement shall be borne exclusively by it. If the loss, damage or injury is caused by a person invited by one Party, as described in Article 2.2, the sending Party will be liable for it.
   

2. 
   Each Party shall be exclusively liable for any loss, damage or injury of non-nuclear origin caused by its personnel to third parties, arising out of the performance of this Collaboration Agreement.
   

3. 
   Each Party shall indemnify the other Party for all liability in respect of any action for damages brought by third parties and caused by their respective personnel in the course of the performance of this Collaboration Agreement.
   

4. 
   Any liability for loss, damage or injury of nuclear origin will be determined by the legislation of the state in which the installation, which is at the origin of the loss, damage or injury, is located.
   

1. 
   The Parties will designate representatives who, at times mutually agreed upon by the Parties, will review the activities being carried out under this Collaboration Agreement and discuss any matter concerning the implementation of this Collaboration Agreement.
   

2. 
   The representative for the JRC will be [name and contact details to be added]
   

The representative for [to be added] will be [name and contact details to be added to be added]

3. 
   All notifications and correspondence under this Collaboration Agreement will be sent to the representatives.
   

4. 
   The Parties will communicate to each other in writing any changes with regard to the above-mentioned representatives.
   

5. 
   Each Party will draw up and make available to the other Party any documents necessary to establish the progress of the work forming the subject matter of this Collaboration Agreement.
   

6. 
   The Parties will consult each other to establish together the final report under this Collaboration Agreement. In the absence of agreement thereon, each Party will draw up separate reports. The final report will describe in detail the whole of the work and research carried out, as well as the results obtained in performance of this Collaboration Agreement and contain a summary of the principal work carried out and results obtained.
   

1. 
   All activities conducted pursuant to this Collaboration Agreement shall be subject to the availability of funds, personnel and other resources as well as to the applicable laws and regulations, policies and programmes of each Party.
   

2. 
   Each Party shall bear the cost of any expenditure it incurs relating to the performance of its tasks under this Collaboration Agreement. There will be no transfer of money between the Parties in connection with this Collaboration Agreement.
   

1. 
   The Parties undertake to keep confidential any information, documentation, data, reports referred to in Article 4, or any other material communicated to them by the other Party (i) as confidential or (ii) the disclosure of which may clearly be prejudicial to the other Party, until the information legitimately becomes publicly available through other parties or through work or actions lawfully performed outside (not based on activities under this Collaboration Agreement) or has been made available to the receiving Party by another party without any confidentiality restrictions. This confidentiality obligation applies also to information communicated orally when such information shall be kept confidential, for instance in the context of information exchange through seminars and workshops.
   

2. 
   Confidentiality of information exchanged orally or in writing in connection with this Collaboration Agreement shall be maintained for a period of five years after its expiry or termination. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any Party may indicate when communicating information to the other Party that the confidentiality of such information shall be maintained even after the said five-year period.
   

• 
  Promote free and open access to information, data and knowledge relevant to address the threats from invasive alien species;
  
• 
  Provide relevant information, data, and knowledge, through EASIN and other channels that may be agreed, and to regularly update such information, data, and knowledge, as necessary;
  
• 
  Endeavour to provide data providers with full attribution for any uses of their data, information, or knowledge, and respect the original integrity of their contributions;
  
• 
  Respect the intellectual property rights and/or licenses associated with documents, data, records, tools, software or materials that are used or made accessible to further the objectives of this Agreement.
  

1. 
   Each Party can subcontract in whole or in part its activities under this Collaboration Agreement only with a written consent of the other Party, which consent may not be unreasonably withheld.
   

2. 
   The subcontracting Party shall remain bound by its obligations to the other Party , who shall retain its rights under the Collaboration Agreement, as if there were no subcontracting. The Party subcontracting the research work shall ensure the assignment of rights, the entire ownership of results, generated and owned by the sub-contractor to the contracting Party, including appropriate contractual provisions accordingly.
   

1. 
   This Collaboration Agreement shall enter into force on the date of its signature by the last Party and is concluded for a period of 5 years from said date. This Collaboration Agreement may be amended only by written agreement signed by the duly authorised representatives of both Parties. It will automatically be renewed every 5 years, unless terminated by either Party under the conditions of Article 12.2.
   

2. 
   Either Party may terminate this Collaboration Agreement at any time upon three months prior written notice to the other Party giving justified reasons for doing so. This shall inter alia be the case where research programmes and budget allocations are no longer compatible with the continuation of the working relationship, procedure or work programme. When a Party terminates this Collaboration Agreement, EASIN shall cease to retrieve data from this Party. The latest data retrieved from this Party and stored in the EASIN database shall remain online but will cease to be updated, unless the Party renders its relevant data publicly and freely available.
   

3. 
   The Parties shall evaluate the implementation of this Collaboration Agreement after it has been in force for [to be added] months/years. On the basis of this evaluation, the Parties may make modifications for the purpose of better fulfilling the objectives of this Collaboration Agreement.
   

1. 
   All provisions of this Collaboration Agreement apply without prejudice to the applicable law, including without limitation the law governing the right of public access to documents. Neither Party can claim any damages or breach of this Collaboration Agreement in cases where the other Party acts according to its obligations resulting from the applicable law.
   

2. 
   The following annex shall form an integral part of this Collaboration Agreement:
   

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission

Director of the Institute for [to be added]

Joint Research Centre

For the [name of the counterparty to be added]

• 
  The EASIN catalogue
  
• 
  The EASIN data broker
  
• 
  The data providers
  

The brokering process consists of four steps:

1. 
   Identification: the EASIN catalogue is used for identifying the alien species to check for retrieving related records/ occurrences;
   
2. 
   Check: the EASIN data broker checks identified alien species and related records on each data provider or changes in species and related records on each data provider;
   
3. 
   Indexation: the EASIN data broker tags and clusters the records from each data provider, retrieving information about spatial, temporal and publisher references;
   
4. 
   Transformations: the EASIN data broker transforms the records/ occurrences to the EASIN data model and stores them in the EASIN databases.
   

Each data provider has its particular data model, storage type, publishing approach, and standard that follows a specific data indexing procedure. Three different categories of data formats are identified, each one related to the organization and technology used by the Data providers:

• 
  File (Excel, comma separated value text)
  
• 
  Database (MS SQL, MS Access, Oracle, ArcGIS)
  
• 
  Remote service (Web-services based on SOAP/JSON protocols)
  

The information indexed and retrieved by the EASIN data broker from the data providers are:

• 
  Name of the species
  
• 
  When the species is found
  
• 
  Where the species is found
  
• 
  A reference to the publisher of the record
  

Depending on the data provider the dates (when), the locations (where) and the publishers (who reported) are stored in different systems and in different formats. These are transformed to a common format by the EASIN data broker to conform to the adopted EASIN data model.