Dean's Directive no. 26/2022

The Industrial Student Directive

Article 1
Subject of the Directive

This directive is issued under section 47 (1) of Act No. 111/1998 Sb., to regulate higher education institutions, the Code of Study and Examination of Charles University, and other general study regulations providing in particular the rules of study in doctoral programmes of study at Charles University (“CU”), e.g., the current Rules of Study at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University, and the purpose of the directive is to define the rules of doctoral study for students who apply their scientific research and independent creative activities in the field of research or development concurrently in study and while working for an extracurricular entity.

Article 2
Definitions

1. Creative work for the purposes of this directive means creative, i.e., scientific or development work performed by a particular student of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University (“MFF UK”) within the framework of the individual curriculum of the doctoral student or within an area defined in writing by the supervisor of the specific student, approved by the extracurricular entity. It does not involve arbitrary creative activities of the MFF UK student.
2. Extracurricular entity means for the purposes of this directive a company outside of the public institution sector or even an entity falling under the public institution sector which is not focused primarily on research or development both in the Czech Republic and abroad.
3. An industrial student is a student of MFF UK whose supervisor is an employee of MFF UK who complies with all the requirements stated below.
   1. After the completion of the admissions procedure at MFF UK the student was admitted to study in a doctoral programme of study and enrolled in study.
   2. The student performs creative work for an extracurricular entity or in its interest, and the extracurricular entity clearly expresses support to the student’s study in the doctoral programme at MFF UK.
   3. The topic of the dissertation thesis of the student in the doctoral programme at MFF UK is a result of an agreement among the student, the supervisor, and the extracurricular entity.
4. Two types of industrial students are distinguished:
   1. External industrial students, i.e., students whose creative work is directly paid by the extracurricular entity based on employment or a similar relationship existing between the student and the extracurricular entity. For details see Article 4 herein.
   2. Internal industrial students, i.e., students whose creative work is paid by MFF UK. For details see Article 5 herein.

Article 3
General Rules Applicable to Industrial Student

1. Every doctoral student at MFF UK who performs creative work defined in Article 2 (1) above in any type of relationship (including voluntary) with an extracurricular entity under Article 2 (2) above must inform the supervisor of this fact without undue delay. The supervisor proceeds in accordance with paragraph 5 of this article.
2. The supervisor of an industrial student must make sure that in the course of the creative work of the industrial student the intellectual property rights of MFF UK are not infringed in accordance with the Dean’s Directive no. 1/2019, regarding the management of intellectual property rights at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University. The supervisor in particular makes sure that the industrial student does not use the protected rights held by MFF UK for his creative work performed for the extracurricular entity without good title, and that the conditions of creative work are set so that the industrial student maintains the confidentiality of confidential information (i.e., information on technological or scientific procedures, formulas, patents, utility designs, or know-how, etc., which are not publicly known, on strategies, plans, objectives, ideas, planned research projects, etc.) and of information protected as a trade secret under the Civil Code.
3. The industrial student or the supervisor must inform the extracurricular entity that the creative work of the industrial student falls in the Czech Republic, inter alia, under the Copyright Act which regulates schoolwork in section 35 (3). Under this provision, if a work created by a student to fulfil study requirements is used by MFF UK for instruction or for internal use rather than for the purpose of direct or indirect financial or commercial benefit, MFF UK by so doing does not interfere with the copyright. MFF UK has a right (under section 60) to enter into a licence agreement under the usual terms for the use of such schoolwork. MFF UK also has a right to request that the author of the school work provide a reasonable contribution from the earnings obtained for use of the work or licence fees to MFF UK to reimburse the costs incurred in creating the work depending on the circumstances up to the actual amount of the costs; in such case the amount of earnings obtained by MFF UK from the use of school work is taken into account.
4. The industrial student is not granted any exceptions in the fulfilment of study requirements in the doctoral programme of study at MFF UK.
5. Administration related to the registration of industrial students and the drafting of contractual documents with extracurricular entities is performed by the Department for Business Cooperation in coordination with the chair of the working group for business partnerships. The supervisor has a duty to inform the Department for Business Cooperation, by e-mail at ofs@matfyz.cuni.cz without undue delay, of information obtained under Article 3 (1) of this directive as well as other information relevant for the setting of contractual terms with the extracurricular entity.

Article 4
Specific Rules Applicable to External Industrial Students

1. MFF UK and the extracurricular entity adopt a joint memorandum of cooperation in relation to the activities of an industrial student. The memorandum may also be adopted in the form of a letter approved by the other party. The memorandum must contain in particular the following:
   1. No working tools of MFF UK (such as hardware, software, etc.) will be used by the industrial student for the extracurricular entity, such tools will be used only for the doctoral study at MFF UK.
   2. Any support of the industrial student by the MFF UK staff (in particular the support provided by the supervisor) will focus exclusively on the student’s doctoral study.
   3. For the period of duration of the creative work the industrial student must not be employed or be in any other similar employment relationship with MFF UK, unless such relationship involves other than creative work performed for the extracurricular entity under this directive. It must be clear that the content of creative work and the other work does not overlap.
   4. The outputs of the industrial student’s work achieved within his/her doctoral study must always be freely publishable in accordance with the scientific standards in the form of non-commercial scientific publication where the possibility of claiming intellectual or industrial property rights by the extracurricular entity will not be jeopardised.
2. If the extracurricular entity is interested in involving the human, material, or other resources of MFF UK above the framework of standard doctoral study and the supervisor considers it meaningful, it is possible to enter into a separate contract with the extracurricular entity to provide contractual research, consultancy, etc., whereby MFF UK may agree to provide such services for a usual fee agreed in advance.

Article 5
Specific Rules Applicable to Internal Industrial Students

1. The regime governing internal industrial students is based on the Dean’s Directive no. 6/2021, to regulate sponsoring and partnership cooperation and promotion of scientific activities at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University. This directive is applied with the necessary modifications to the provision of any financial or other support by the extracurricular entity to MFF UK.
2. MFF UK and the extracurricular entity enter into a contract of cooperation on the education of the internal industrial student which contains in particular the following:
   1. A precise definition of creative work within the individual curriculum of the industrial student.
   2. Provisions concerning intellectual property rights in accordance with the internal regulations of CU and MFF UK (in particular Rector’s Directive No. 46/2018, regarding the management of intellectual property rights at Charles University; Rector’s Directive No. 47/2018, to regulate knowledge and technology transfer at Charles University; Rector’s Directive No. 17/2018, on the provisions for work for hire at Charles University; Dean’s Directive no. 1/2019, regarding the management of intellectual property rights at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University; Dean’s Directive no. 5/2021, to regulate knowledge and technology transfer at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University.
   3. Setting of interim milestones in terms of content and time for the creative work of the industrial student.
   4. The contract may be terminated ipso facto prematurely by the extracurricular entity due to recurring failure to fulfil the obligations of the industrial student identified during the review of compliance with the interim milestones for creative work; the termination must always be preceded by a written request to remedy the failure specifying the requirements which were not fulfilled. The parties may agree on other grounds for premature termination of contract.
   5. Termination of study of the industrial student at MFF UK constitutes a resolutive condition of the above contract with the extracurricular entity. MFF UK informs the extracurricular entity of termination without undue delay.
   6. No obligations arise for MFF UK from the contract concerning the outputs achieved or duration of study of the industrial student towards the extracurricular entity.
   7. If the contract includes an obligation of the extracurricular entity to provide financial support to MFF UK, such financial support must be properly described so that always not less than 15 per cent of its total amount is allocated to the overhead costs of the Faculty, unless the parties to the contract agree otherwise in justified cases.
3. If during the creative work of an industrial student outputs are created involving intellectual property rights which can be protected, such protection will be ensured by MFF UK. If the extracurricular entity is interested, MFF UK agrees to enter into a separate licence agreement with the extracurricular entity for such protected outputs in accordance with the rules set for such contracts at Charles University and under fair conditions taking into account the share of the extracurricular entity in the creation of such outputs.

Article 6
Final Provision

This directive enters into force on the date of its approval by the Dean of MFF UK and becomes effective on the date of publication in the publicly accessible section of the MFF UK website, however no sooner than on 29 November 2022.

Proposed by:
Ing. Barbora Joudalová, MBA, Head of the Department for Business Cooperation
doc. Mgr. Martin Nečaský, Ph.D., Chair of the Working Group for School-Business Partnerships

The directive was considered by the management of MFF UK on 16 November 2022 and the Academic Senate of MFF UK on 23 November 2022.

It was approved on 29 November 2022 by: