In accordance with Chapter XIV. Regulations for Managing Official Doctoral Studies, partnership agreements may be signed with public, private, Spanish or foreign schools, institutions and organisations involving R&D activities to promote the development of doctoral theses in collaboration with other organisations and the mobility of doctoral students, as well as to complete their training. In this respect, this procedure affects any agreements covering situations not provided for in the following specific procedures published by the DOKe [PhD school] and their corresponding agreement templates that are already approved:

• Jointly supervised PhDs
• PhDs in partnership with external organisations
• Industrial PhD
• Outgoing stays
• Educational cooperation agreements (internships)

Therefore, please find below the procedure for formalising partnership agreements with external organisations in the event that none of these procedures (and the corresponding template agreements if applicable) meet the needs of the agreements. The UPV/EHU [University of the Basque Country] Academic Management agreement technical service shall be the consultative body for the different parties involved throughout the processing process.

As the processing of a partnership agreement that does not conform to the template involves approval by different bodies both at the university and at the partner organisations, and the request for technical and legal reports from different services, the doctoral student must begin this procedure, together with their thesis director(s) at the UPV/EHU, at least 3 months in advance of the start date of the activities set forth in the agreement. The date of signature of the agreement by all parties must likewise be prior to the start date of the activities in question.

1. The Doctoral Programme faculty in question must seeks the Doctoral Programme Academic Committee’s approval to formalise a Partnership Agreement with External Organisations not provided for in the specific procedures published by the DOKe and its corresponding agreement templates. The faculty in question must therefore provide the Academic Committee with: (a) the draft agreement; (b) the data form, fully completed and signed by the thesis director at the UPV/EHU (docx, 50 Kb).
   
   NOTE: in order to establish a draft agreement, the faculty from the programme in question may clarify any prior queries with the UPV/EHU Academic Management agreement technical service via the email address convenios.vicer.grado-posgrado@ehu.eus. In any case, the proposing lecturer should obtain provisional approval from the academic committee before drafting the draft agreement.
2. The Academic Committee must approve the partnership in advance in order to formalise this agreement. In this case, the Committee coordinator must send the following to the DOKe at the address doke.hitzarmenak@ehu.eus: (a) the Academic Committee agreement; (b) the draft agreement; (c) the data form (docx, 50 Kb).
3. Once approved by the DOKe, the DOKe submits the application to the Academic Management agreement technical service.
4. The Academic Management agreement technical service requests the necessary technical and legal reports prior to the Postgraduate Committee approval. The Academic Management agreement technical service shall inform the DOKe if any of the legal reports include any comments about the draft agreement, who shall take appropriate action based on the comments in the report. Once the final version of the agreement has been agreed, and the Academic Management agreement technical service has drawn up the explanatory memorandum, the steps involved in its approval are as follows.
5. The agreement must be approved by the DOKe Permanent Council in the event that the agreement is signed by a representative from the DOKe’s management team.
6. Regardless of who signs the agreement, DOKe submits the application to Academic Management, who processes the application for approval of the agreement with the Postgraduate Committee. 
7. Once approved, if the agreement needs to be signed by DOKe management, the DOKe generates the copies and is responsible for collecting the signatures. If the agreement needs to be signed by the management team, the relevant vice-rector's office generates the copies and is responsible for collecting the signatures.