Policies and Procedures - Facility Use Agreements and Descriptions

Topic List (click to go to topic):

• Treatment of Intellectual Property: How the CNST treats proprietary information and intellectual property rights.
• Proprietary Versus Non-proprietary Projects: How the Department of Commerce defines proprietary and nonproprietary research and how information from each is shared.
• Types of Facilities Use Agreements: Description of the facilities use agreements the NanoFab uses for proprietary and non-proprietary research.
• NanoFab Access: How to gain access to the NanoFab and to the NIST campus.

Types of Facilities Use Agreements and Descriptions

The NanoFab uses three types of facilities use agreements (FUAs) for external users only. The agreements define the period of use, requirements for payment and insurance, responsibilities for damages and injuries, various liabilities (including those associated with information disclosure), and other terms of use, such as the requirement that the use of the NanoFab be acknowledged in publications.

1. Facilities Use Agreement for Non-Proprietary Research: For non-proprietary NanoFab projects from institutions that are not federal agencies where the processes and procedures used in the NanoFab and all results may be made freely available to the public, and the users intend to publish the results.
2. Facilities Use Agreement for Non-collaborative Proprietary Research: For proprietary NanoFab projects when the external users do not want the results or other aspects of the project disclosed to the public, and are therefore required to perform the project directly and exclusively by the external users. Note that this agreement explicitly declares that the "USER will retain the entire right, title, and interest to any invention solely created by USER's employee(s) resulting from the proprietary measurements performed under this Agreement."