We currently manage offices in eight countries (Hong Kong, Israel, India, Ireland, South Africa, Tunisia, the UK, and the US), and we’re always interested in expanding our portfolio in support of our clients' projects. Where we can open a new office or add to an existing office depends on:

• your project’s activities
• your project’s timeline and duration
• your budget
• your funding sources
• our registration status and jurisdiction to operate in the selected location

In a country or jurisdiction where we’re already registered, we can open a new office on your behalf, if approved by UCIPS.

Alternatively, if we’re operating an existing office on behalf of another department or School, we can work with all parties to negotiate space sharing and operational efficiencies to extend support to you at the same site.

In a country or jurisdiction where we’re not established and do not have an office, we’ll work with you to identify your needs and challenges, review the selected country’s requirements and options to operate there, and provide support for your initial UCIPS budgeting and planning.

See Where We Operate for the list of countries where we have ongoing operations and operations in development.

UCIPS approval is required before establishing any new Harvard University-affiliated offices abroad. It's typically a two-stage process: authorization to explore and authorization to implement. For more information, review the UCIPS criteria on the University Provost’s website. Note that many Schools also have their own review and approval process, which occurs prior to UCIPS. Consult with your School's Research Administration Office, Finance Office, or Dean’s Office, as applicable, about your specific School-based review requirements.

Once your project receives approval from your School, we can work with you and in consultation with the Provost's Office to prepare your budget and proposal for review by UCIPS. If planned accordingly, we can work in tandem with the UCIPS review process to commence the registration process during stage one.

We offer a competitive pricing structure unique to each project. At the outset, we scope the project with you to create a multi-stage proposal based on:

• your project activities
• your project timeline and duration
• the number of employees
• the size and type of office or lab space needed
• the country of operation

Upon scoping, we’ll present you with startup costs, which encompass legal, regulatory, registration, tax services, consulting, and our operational costs. These startup costs can be amortized over a 5-year period. In addition to startup costs, we charge a monthly service fee. All costs, including our service fee and early termination fee, are mutually agreed upon and outlined in detail in our service agreement with you. As an example, service fees for current projects range from $3,000 to $ 8,000 per month.

In addition to our service fee, your monthly invoice includes expenses that we pay in country on your behalf, such as:

• building leases
• taxes
• vendor payments (e.g., utilities, maintenance, local IT, event space, caterers)
• employee salaries
• assignment allowances (e.g., housing, cost of living)
• fringe expenses

As outlined in our service agreement, an early termination fee may be charged if your project is shut down prior to the five-year threshold. This fee enables us to recoup some of the significant upfront costs of the registration process. It’s prorated annually and may be waived if we have other ongoing projects operating in the same country.

Our service fee covers our administrative expenses and replaces the expense and effort that your department would otherwise incur on your own. All costs, including our service fee, are outlined in detail in our service agreement with you.

Specifically, our service fee covers:

• Legal establishment and registrations
• Legal counsel
• Safety and security assessment for potential office location
• Lease negotiation for selected office or lab space
• Permits and licensing
• Required insurances
• IT configuration and coordination
• Vendor management and payments
• Payroll setup and processing
• Dedicated employee support from our International HR team
• Pre-assignment tax briefing (if applicable for U.S. expatriates and third-country nationals)
• Tax services
• Grant and gift administration (if applicable)
• Financial management and reporting
• Currency conversion
• Payment of bank fees
• Accounting
• Annual audits
• Compliance tracking and oversight
• Ongoing oversight of the office and lease negotiations
• Ongoing project management
• Conferences and collaborations administration and support
• Coordination between Cambridge staff and local staff

Our service fee does not cover:

• Visa sponsorship and work permits. In certain countries, we may be able to sponsor visas locally; if so, these costs are quoted and billed to you on a case-by-case basis.
• Accounts payable (e.g., rent; vendor payments for utilities, maintenance, etc.) and employment costs (e.g., salaries, assignment allowances, and benefits). These costs are billed to you in our reoccurring invoices.

We determine this on a case-by-case basis after careful review of the grant terms and other factors that govern allowability. We’ll work with Harvard’s Office for Sponsored Programs (OSP) to help you determine if our service fee is appropriate to charge to a particular grant. If allowed, the service fee should be included in the grant budget at the proposal stage. In some cases, only part of the service fee is allowable, which we’ll itemize as necessary.

At the outset, your department is responsible for:

• Preparing proposals and budgets for School and UCIPS reviews
• Scoping the project and service agreement with us
• Obtaining University permission for use of Harvard names, marks, or logos
• Supporting the identification and selection of office or lab space
• Supporting the identification and selection of vendors (e.g., IT, construction, maintenance, etc.)
• Recruiting and selecting in-country staff

Once we’re operating, your department is responsible for:

• Collaborating with us to ensure local compliances an standards are met
• Directing program activities
• Informing us of any expansion to program activities in a timely manner
• Day-to-day management of staff and faculty
• Performance management of all staff
• Coding and submitting invoices
• Approving expenses and payroll

Each case is unique. We’ll advise you on expected timelines at the outset and continue to update you throughout the set-up process. It's important to plan early. Your timeline should factor in School and UCIPS reviews and also be flexible enough to account for administrative delays, which are common when operating internationally. The set-up process abroad can be slowed by office closures for holidays, backlogs in paperwork processing, or sudden changes in government policies.

The following criteria influence your overall time frame:

• Country where your project will occur
• Our legal presence or jurisdiction to operate in the selected country
• Your project’s funding source
• Whether your project needs a new or existing office or lab and the amount of outfitting required
• Number of employees to hire
• Employee(s) immigration status and work authorization in the selected country

The activities to undertake include:

• Obtaining School and UCIPS approvals (client)
• Scoping the project to understand your activities and needs (HG and client)
• Researching the country requirements (HG)
• Developing and negotiating a service agreement (HG and client)
• Filing incorporation and registration paperwork and receiving approvals (HG)
• Opening a bank account (HG)
• Identifying and selecting office space (HG and client)
• Negotiating office lease (HG)
• Recruiting and selecting employees (client)
• Hiring and onboarding employees (HG)

Some of the activities can occur in tandem, while others are conditional. In countries where we’re registered or already have jurisdiction to operate, these activities can take three to six months if you’re able to use an office that we operate for another department or School, or six to nine months or more if you require a new office or lab to be procured and outfitted. In countries where we’re not registered and do not have an office, these activities can take eight to 12 months or more.