Guidelines for the establishment of Cooperation Agreements (MoU)

Your first point of contact at MIN for planning a MoU agreement is the Dean's Office for International Affairs at MIN. Contact: Advisor for  International Affairs

MoU standard agreement form of Universität Hamburg

The cooperation representatives of the participating institutions must first agree on the goal and content of the cooperation agreement:

• Implementation of joint research projects
• Exchange of scientists, exchange of students
• Exchange of publications
• Implementation of joint teaching programs
• Organization of joint conferences, etc.

MoU agreements are concluded at departmental level and signed by the Dean of the MIN Faculty. Universität Hamburg provides a standard agreement with a general statement of intent, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which you should primarily use.

If you and the international partner institution use your own contract template, it must be compared with the standard agreement form of the MIN faculty.  Any changes to the wording or content must be subsequently reviewed by the UHH Legal Department and amended, if necessary. Please note that the legal review can takes up to 6 weeks.

Find funding: To establish and finance collaborations between foreign and German higher education institutions, you may find a few funding opportunities for individual and institutional collaborations here.

Extension, amendment or termination of cooperation

In order to extend, amend or terminate an existing contract, please contact the Advisor for international Affairs of the MIN Faculty.

If you make amendments to the standard agreement form or enhance it with supplementary agreements or additional contracts (e.g. Student Exchange Agreement, conferences and workshops), please forward the completed and amended agreement to your international partner for review.

You review the draft agreement checked or corrected and returned by your international partner and forward the documents to the Dean's Office for  international Affairs. The latter checks the draft agreement for (in)compatibility with the standard contracts.   Then, please obtain written approval for the MoU agreement from the head of department and forward this in duplicate with the contract.

If the draft agreement is approved by the dean's office of Internationalisation and Support for Doctoral and Early Career Researchers, it will be forwarded to the International Affairs Department (Dept. 5) for legal review. Depending on the case, the draft agreement may be  checked by Department 3 for Studies and Teaching or by Department 4 for Research.  The legally reviewed draft agreement goes back to office of the dean for Internationalization and Support for Doctoral and Early Career Researchers of the MIN, who arranges for it to be signed by the dean.

Planning Secure International Cooperation:

All members of the University who cooperate in international contexts can find information and advice in Universität Hamburg’s guidelines on planning and minimizing the risks of international cooperation. The guidelines will help you establish cooperations, clarify legal conditions, sensitize you to possible risks, and help you minimize them. 
Guidelines: Planning secure international cooperation

In-depth review procedure: If you would like to establish a cooperation with an institution in a country where the cooperation is relevant to export regulations, you must submit the cooperation proposal to an in-depth review.

Please send us a copy of the MoU signed by both collaboration partners to the Dean's Office for international Affairs of the MIN faculty for database entry.