Knowledge Has Value. This Policy Protects It.

Interdisciplinary research produces something rare: knowledge that no single discipline could have generated alone. When that knowledge takes the form of a patent, a software tool, a clinical method, or a licensed technology, it carries real institutional and commercial value. AAU has a responsibility to protect that value, distribute it fairly, and channel it back into the research that created it.

This policy is that responsibility in writing.

Scope

AAU's Intellectual Property Rights Policy (PS_ISR_13, V05, 2025) applies to every form of intellectual property arising from the university's interdisciplinary research framework. Patents. Software. Databases. Research designs. Educational tools. It covers all faculty members, researchers, and graduate students across every college and research centre conducting interdisciplinary work under AAU's institutional framework.

Ownership and Recognition

When AAU resources, facilities, or funding are involved, the intellectual property belongs to the university — with individual researchers retaining their moral rights and receiving a defined share of any commercial return. When external partners co-fund the work, ownership is governed by the signed research agreement. In every case, the policy ensures that inventors and contributors receive fair and transparent recognition.

What Happens When Research Becomes Revenue

When interdisciplinary research is commercialized, the returns are distributed through a model built on one principle: everyone who made the work possible shares in what it produces.

From Idea to Market: Six Pathways

Accountability

Full Policy Document

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