Introduction The ELIXIR Hub has prepared this survey to capture the feedback from our Nodes, in order to bring the feedback to consideration by the ELIXIR Board at the April 2018 Board meeting, and to ask the Board to assess the possibility of updating the Collaboration Agreement template and the Annexes related to it. Background The Collaboration Agreement template was approved by the ELIXIR Board in April 2014. Annex 2 to the template is “Commissioned Services Contract” and the ELIXIR Hub uses a template for Commissioned Services contracts for negotiations with the Nodes. In the past Commissioned Services occurred through different programmes, first Pilot Actions and later on until today Implementation Studies, which last maximum 18 months. The Guidelines of pre-financing of Implementation Studies were approved by the ELIXIR Board in April 2016. This allowed the ELIXIR Board to approve the first Commissioned Services Contracts in April 2016. The first Service Delivery Plans were approved in November 2016. We have so far concluded 15 Collaboration Agreements, 11 Service Delivery Plans, and a total of 86 Commissioned Services Contracts with 15 Nodes. Thus, the ELIXIR Hub considers it to be a good time to assess if these agreements are fit for purpose and assess the practicalities of administrative steps taken to conclude Commissioned Services Contracts. Survey One submission per Node is expected. Deadline 13 April. Your Node - Select -BelgiumCzech RepublicDenmarkEBIEstoniaFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryIrelandIsraelItalyLuxembourgNetherlandsNorwayPortugalSloveniaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUKGreece The Collaboration Agreement and the related Annexes Collaboration Agreements in general: are you satisfied with the current Collaboration Agreement template? Based on your experience with Commissioned Services Contracts, are there areas where we could improve the process? This would include the preparation of contracts, signing of contracts and the administrative processes of invoicing and concluding the projects. Related to the Commissioned Services Contracts, have you encountered problems within your Node when a Node member (instead of the Lead/Representing entity) conducts the Implementation Study? Possible problems could e.g. be related to the transfer of resources between the Lead entity and the Node member, service provision or information flow. Does the model of Lead/Representing entity work effectively for the national operation of your Node? Related to Annex 4 “Warranty document”, have you encountered difficulties with this Annex? Do you have any other comments or suggestions with regards to the Collaboration Agreement and its Annexes? Funding opportunities and the ELIXIR Collaboration Agreement Funding gaps intro The ELIXIR Hub discovered a few gaps in the current version of the Collaboration Agreement template: it does not consider Nodes in their possible function as Linked Third Parties to grants. Therefore Nodes in such capacity are required to sign a separate liability agreement with the ELIXIR Hub; and it does not provide a clear enough legal link between the ELIXIR Hub and the members of the Nodes, particularly when taking part in large EC grants (i.e INFRAEOSC-4, EJP Rare Diseases, INFRADEV-3). Are there any other aspects of the Collaboration Agreement template that would need to be improved in relation to grants in addition to the ones described above? Is there additional need for support from the Project Management Unit when entering grants that is not yet sufficiently covered? If so, what kind of support will be required? Screening of funding opportunities Proposal preparation (whole process) Proposal preparation (coordination) Proposal preparation (budgeting) Grant execution (project management) Grant execution (communication) Grant execution (events management) Development on project management skills Other Please list any other support requirements Admin use only