---
id: "govlab:project/project-contracts-for-data-collaboration"
type: "GovLab project"
title: "Contracts for Data Collaboration"
url: "https://thegovlab.org/project/project-contracts-for-data-collaboration"
summary: "Contracts for Data Collaboration (C4DC) seeks to strengthen trust, transparency, and accountability of cross-sector data collaboratives by demystifying the complexity of data sharing agreements."
source: "The GovLab (thegovlab.org)"
licence: "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
---

# Contracts for Data Collaboration

Contracts for Data Collaboration (C4DC) seeks to strengthen trust, transparency, and accountability of cross-sector data collaboratives by demystifying the complexity of data sharing agreements.

Project website: [https://contractsfordatacollaboration.org/](https://contractsfordatacollaboration.org/)

## Background

Unlocking privately processed data through data collaboratives — a new form of public-private partnership in which private industry, government and civil society work together to release previously siloed data — has become essential to address the challenges of our era. Yet while research has proven its promise and value, several barriers to scaling data collaboration exist. Ensuring trust and shared responsibility in how the data will be handled and used proves particularly challenging, because of the high transaction costs involved in drafting contracts and agreements of sharing.

## Description

Contracts for Data Collaboration (C4DC) seeks to strengthen trust, transparency, and accountability of cross-sector data collaboratives. The intent of this initiative is to enable more effective and efficient ways of accessing, sharing and using data for public problem-solving and sustainable development. Central to C4DC is the objective of demystifying the complexity of data sharing agreements. Establishing the legal provisions for a data collaborative can be time-consuming and complex. By providing both an analytical framework and an online library of legal clauses which capture the key elements involved in a data collaboration, the transaction costs and misunderstandings that often occur during the negotiating of a data collaborative can be reduced.

## Location

- United States

## Partners

- University of Washington
- SDSN Trends
- World Economic Forum

## Additional resources

- [Introducing the Contractual Wheel of Data Collaboration](https://medium.com/data-stewards-network/introducing-the-contractual-wheel-of-data-collaboration-ca4c55938e7a)
- [Laying the Foundation for Effective Partnerships: An Examination of Data Sharing Agreements](https://www.sdsntrends.org/research/dsainsightsreport)
- [Understanding Public-Private Data Sharing Agreements: Questions to Consider](http://thegovlab.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/WORKING-DRAFT-4.20-C4DC-Questions-to-Consider.pdf)