Making contracting simpler: building on improvements to the Contracts Service
03 Nov 2026
After accelerating the creation of confidentiality agreements with a successful proof of concept, we’re now looking at more service improvements.
We’re continuing to improve the services provided by the Contracts Team, using colleagues’ real-life experiences of contracting to identify practical changes and improvements that can make the service clearer, simpler and easier to navigate.
Positive changes have already been introduced through the Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement (CDA) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) process. Before this was introduced, it took on average 39 days from submission of the agreement to completion. Now for cases started and completed in the last three months it's an average of seven days.
We’re now looking at what we can learn from those improvements and how successful approaches could be applied more widely across the service.
Building on what works
Our review of the CDA/NDA process is helping us understand where changes have made a positive difference and where similar approaches could benefit other contracting processes.
This includes looking at:
- how colleagues access the service
- how requests are received and triaged
- how work is allocated
- visibility of requests and processes
- clearer signposting to information and support.
For colleagues who are new to the University, or haven’t used the process before, all CDA/NDA requests should be submitted using this online request form.
What’s next?
Learning from the CDA/NDA work is already helping us identify where to focus further improvements and Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) have been identified as the next area for review.
As we continue to build on this review, we’re also exploring opportunities to apply what we learn across wider areas such as consultancy agreements.
Furthermore, we’re developing plans for more significant changes to the service, including new digital tools, that will be subject to approval and will take longer to implement.
Supporting Manchester 2035
Continually improving the contracting processes and service and working together with one of the University’s research enablers, the Contracting Optimisation Project, we’re supporting the strategic research leaps within Manchester 2035 whilst also working towards being the university to partner with.
For more information visit the Contracts StaffNet pages and the Contracting Optimisation Project pages on the Research Enablement SharePoint site.