Two new documents establish the basis for the EST project collaborations with the private sector.
Aware of the importance of collaborating with the industry to achieve common objectives of technology transfer between the IAC and the private sector and to increase, in the interest of science, the pool of European firms working on the technological challenges posed by the development of the next generation Large Telescopes, the IAC has prepared two legal documents:
- the first one was produced in the framework of the IAC, as institution hosting the Project Office, to establish a general agreement for collaboration between the IAC and the interested party;
- the second one describes the specific activities to be addressed during the term of the Agreement (typically one year, with a possible extension to a second year, if agreed).
No economic exchange is allowed by the Agreements.
The documents and agreements are public and accessible to any interested party. The agreements provide for the protection of intellectual and industrial property:
Specific Agreement for Projects as EST
The first company signing the framework agreement has been ESTEYCO. The specific collaboration agreement between this organization and IAC has been published at the Official Spanish Gazette (BOE-A-2018-15728). This agreement is based on studies of the design of the structure of the telescope.
An agreement with SENER for “Optomechanical Systems for Large Telescopes” is in process of signature.
Others are still under negotiation by the EST Project Office.