Guidelines for the establishment of Cooperation Agreements (MoU)

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 the international partner institution uses its own standard agreement form, a comparison with the standard form of Universität Hamburg must be carried out. The document must then be checked for wording and aspects of content subsequently and amended, if necessary.

Find funding: To establish and finance collaborations between foreign and German higher education institutions, DAAD offers funding opportunitiesfor individual and institutional:  DAAD database (only in German).  

In order to extend, amend or terminate an existing contract, please contact the janie.wermter@uni-hamburg.de( janie.wermter"AT"uni-hamburg.de) or the Team Leader of Partnership Management I: America, Africa, Europe( jan.froemming"AT"uni-hamburg.de).

An electronic standard agreement is made available for you.

You supplement the model contract or enhance it with supplementary agreements or additional contracts (e.g. Student Exchange Agreement, conferences and workshops). You then forward the completed contract 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 office of the dean for Internationalisation and Support for Doctoral and Early Career Researchers of the MIN (contact: Janie Wermter). 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 academic pursuit is highly restricted and 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 contract partners to the Dean's Office for Internationalisation  and  Support for Doctoral and Early Career Researchers at MIN for database entry.