Who owns the research data?
In normal circumstances, if you are the creator of your data, researchers and students at the University of Cambridge will retain intellectual property rights of research work conducted during the course of their employment.
This is in accordance with Chapter XIII of the University’s Statutes and Ordinances on Finance and Property.
You should consult the terms and conditions of your grant or any collaboration or data access agreements as these may affect the ways that research data can be used by researchers at the University of Cambridge, or by external collaborators.
For advice, please contact the appropriate Contracts Manager at the Research Operations Office.
Intellectual Property (IP) ownership
There is a difference between ownership of protectable IP and IP that is not protectable. Research data falls under the latter category:
University staff members own the work that they create in the course of their employment, e.g. research data. The University only reserves the initial right to patent protectable IP, not to the research data itself. The exception to this is where employees have agreed any third party rights for the data, for example to collaborators or funders.
Note that research data can be part of a broader invention, underpinning IP that could be protected. Please contact Cambridge Enterprise if you have any questions about this, as early on in your project as possible.
Please note that the current University IP policy is being reviewed. This web page will be updated to reflect any changes made as a result.