UCL Art Futures is a founding member of oneNDA

oneNDA was launched by The Law Boutique (a leading legal optimisation and design consultancy) with the aim of developing a universally standardised non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

NDAs are often one of the first steps in exploring new partnerships, playing an important role in supporting collaboration across all sectors, with the creative industries being no exception. However, they're wellknown for generating significant costs as parties are required to negotiate individual terms that are, on the whole, capable of being standardised for most sectors.

To address this problem, oneNDA is developing a universal, standardised, NDA that significantly reduces negotiating time and helps to streamline the contracting process. In doing so, it allows the parties to both save costs and focus their resources on developing the substance of their partnership.

New and collaborative ways of working

The oneNDA initiative also offers insight into how new and collaborative ways of working can achieve significant impact and innovation. The initiative has brought together leading practitioners and organisations from the legal sector and beyond to help draft, test and design the NDA to ensure that it's not only fit for purpose but also accessible for all users. To date, over 800 organisations have committed to adopting the oneNDA and implementing its house rules, which will help to protect the integrity of the document over time.

Anna Donovan, co-founder of UCL Art Futures and member of UCL Laws, said: "UCL Art Futures is committed to creating accessible, open-source, resources that support innovation and collaboration. These are principles that are also at the core of the oneNDA mission and we are delighted to be a part of such an important initiative."

The oneNDA is due to be available at the end of June 2021. For more information on the project, including a complete timeline and details of other collaborators, visit the oneNDA website.