Introduction to DTU rules on secondary employment
DTU has issued a set of guidelines on secondary employment, which must be adhered to by all DTU employees, whether you are working full-time or part-time.
The guidelines stipulate when notification and reporting of secondary employment is required. The guidelines apply only to secondary employment which is relevant to staff members' employment with DTU, i.e. secondary employment associated with leisure-time activities etc. are not covered by the guidelines.
The scope and nature of the secondary employment must be compatible with the tasks associated you’re your employment at DTU, including impartiality in relation to other business partners.
Read more about impartiality.
Type of secondary employment
You may engage in:
- Professional secondary employment carried out as a result of being employed at DTU
- Commercial secondary employment carried out alongside DTU employment
In case of doubt as to the type of secondary employment, please refer to the explanatory notes on the Guidelines on secondary employment.
Notification and reporting
In case of commercial secondary employment, the head of department must be notified at least one month in advance of commencement of such secondary employment. If the head finds that the secondary employment is incompatible with employment at DTU, you must be notified immediately.
You must report any commercial and professional secondary employment undertaken, 1 January each year via an reporting form. The form must be submitted to your immediate manager by the end of February at the latest. The report must contain all professional and commercial secondary employment undertaken in the past calendar year.
The approved reports will be filed on a docx-file at the department.
Any remuneration received for paid professional secondary employment is generally payable to the employee.
If you are engaged in strategic research as a secondary employment, the head of department must ensure that IP is retained by DTU.
In case of commercial secondary occupation, a consulting agreement must sometimes be drawn up
In the event of long-term consultancy work normally a consulting agreement must be drawn up between you and the company in question.
If you are to act as:
- a consultant within a defined area, but with no set task (typically consulting services for companies in connection with projects)
- a consultant on a set project of a fixed-term duration
The consulting may not conflict with your employment at DTU. A copy of the agreement must therefore be submitted in confidence to the head of department in connection with the advance notification of the commercial secondary employment.
If you are a researcher who is starting up his/her own business, an agreement must be drawn up in cooperation with Law and Contracts. A copy of the agreement must be submitted in confidence to the head of department in connection with the advance notification of the commercial secondary employment.
For further information on secondary employment, please refer to the DTU guidelines on secondary employment.