FAQs about the Berlin University Alliance Collaboration Platform
The Collaboration Platform (Kooperationsplattform) serves as the administrative service provider for the implementation of a portion of the joint alliance projects. It supports the four alliance partners of the Berlin University Alliance in achieving their alliance goals, taking on a purely service function. The Collaboration Platform is established as a corporation under public law (Körperschaft öffentlichen Rechts, KöR), making it an independent operating entity for the administrative tasks it fulfills.
The sole members of the Collaboration Platform as a public-law corporation (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts, KöR) are the alliance partners, which are legal entities of public law themselves, but not their respective individual members. To avoid any difficulties in distinguishing them from the members of the partner institutions, the term "partners" is used in the KöR law instead of "members" to refer to the alliance partners. The legal form of KöR was chosen for the Collaboration Platform to provide it with a transparent and sustainable structure, facilitating collaborations among the alliance partners while maintaining a degree of operational independence from them.
As a corporation under public law, which can only be established by law (in this case, by the state of Berlin), the Collaboration Platform provides an efficient, stable, and legally secure framework for the implementation of projects by the Berlin University Alliance. With this legal configuration, the state of Berlin offers researchers and administrations of the individual partner institutions a new opportunity for the administrative and technical management of projects.
The Collaboration Platform assists the partner institutions and their researchers in implementing joint alliance projects and supports scientific collaborations between the alliance partners and other stakeholders.
Funding decisions made by the Berlin University Alliance are implemented and administratively supported by the collaboration platform in cooperation with the alliance partners; research itself takes place exclusively at the partner institutions.
No, the chosen legal framework ensures that the Collaboration Platform does not limit the institutional sovereignty of the individual alliance partners. Research projects are exclusively conducted within the facilities of the alliance partners and the Collaboration Platform does not undertake tasks that were previously the sole responsibility of an alliance partner. Instead, it focuses on the additional tasks arising from the cross-institutional nature of the alliance's goals and projects.
Yes, employment relationships established at the partner institutions prior to the establishment of the corporation under public law (KöR) were transferred to the Collaboration Platform. Upon the establishment of the KöR, employment relationships are directly established by the Collaboration Platform.
The governance units of the Collaboration Platform include the Executive Board, composed of the presidents and the chairman of the boards of the alliance partners, as well as the Advisory Board, representing the status groups of the alliance partners along with joint representatives of the women's representatives, representatives for disabled employees, and employee representatives.
The Collaboration Platform can exclusively request, accept, and utilize funds from third parties to fulfill its own (administrative) tasks, for example, sponsorship funds for a joint event. Third-party funding for research projects cannot be acquired, as the Collaboration Platform is not an institution engaged in research activities.