This Collaboration Agreement template is designed to help your team be explicit about the details of your collaboration. It is important for your team to devote effort early to designing your collaboration so that you are set up for success and can focus on the science and technology of your project.

This template contains questions in several topic areas that guide team reflection on what is working and not working, discussion of strategies for working together successfully, and development of approaches for preemptively addressing potential conflicts. It is intended to facilitate dialogue about shared rules and norms of collaboration and open pathways for anticipating, identifying, and addressing obstacles as they arise. Your team includes a diversity of disciplines and professions, personalities, and work and communication styles and this template can surface and elucidate these differences. If you are willing to acknowledge, examine, and develop a shared understanding of how to address them, this can propel your team toward more successful outcomes.