The European Commission (EC) has published the final version of the model grant agreement (contract) under which projects in the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) will be funded.

One model agreement will apply to indirect actions under the Cooperation and Capacities programmes. Separate agreements have been published for the People and Ideas programmes. The Commission has also published a set of special clauses that can be used with the grant agreements, where they take precedence.

The FP7 regime sees a number of changes to the way the programme provides support, and the rights and responsibilities that go with receiving it.

One of the most important is the way that what was known as 'pre-existing know-how' is now referred to as 'background', and what was known as 'knowledge' is now 'foreground'. Under FP7, only prior information and intellectual property rights that have been applied for or granted are considered background. This may reduce participants' concerns about access-rights obligations.

There are three major changes to the way the ownership of results is handled under FP7.

A default joint-ownership regime has been introduced, in case contractors haven't agreed their own approach. Each joint owner can grant non-exclusive licenses to third parties, subject to prior notice and fair and reasonable compensation to the other joint owners.

The second change in the way that ownership is handled is that 'other personnel' are now cited explicitly. This makes clearer the contractors' obligation to ensure that the rights any project personnel might claim, by virtue of national law or other agreement, will not prejudice the obligations assumed under the grant agreement.

The third change involves the regulation of transfer of ownership and gives participants greater autonomy. The only obligation under the agreement now is to notify participants (but not the Commission). Participants can waive their right to be notified before ownership is transferred to a particular third party. The Commission's rights to object to a transfer or the granting of access rights are similar to those of FP6, but now only apply if the plan is to transfer ownership or rights to a country not involved with FP7.

The basics of protecting the results of FP7 projects do not change, but the new rules give contractors greater scope for negotiation. Participants can transfer results to other participants if they don't want to protect the results themselves, rather than having to offer them to the Commission as under FP6.

The FP7 grant agreements simplify the rules about publication, and demand greater prominence for the EC funding that made them possible. They also simplify the access rights system, including by allowing exclusive licences.

Frontier research projects are now expected to make disseminating their results a priority. It's a non-negotiable condition of funding that results are made available royalty-free for implementation or further research, without exception. Other access rights have to be royalty-free, unless stated otherwise in the grant agreement.