ILO establishes policies and guidelines, helps draft, and negotiate various research agreements with external parties to facilitate collaborative research. In doing this, the University's Intellectual Property Rights need to be protected and its reputation as a premier academic institution maintained.

ILO manages and protects the University's Intellectual Property Rights, including patents, trade marks, service marks, registered designs, copyright, design rights, know-how, confidential information, trade and business names.

We negotiate on the University's behalf with external parties to facilitate various research agreements between NUS and these external parties, which can be other educational institutions, research centres, commercial companies or government agencies.

ILO deals with Research Collaboration Agreements, Memoranda of Understanding, Non Disclosure Agreements or Confidentiality Agreements, and Letters of Understanding.

In all our agreements, the principle of mutual benefit for all parties forms the basis of negotiation, with the perspective of the University as a publicly-funded, academic institution necessarily taking prominence.