Concerns are held across the Group of Eight (Go8) that the standard terms sought by the Commonwealth when entering into research agreements with universities misunderstand the role and nature of universities; are unnecessarily onerous and impractical; often cause delay and uncertainty due to their complexity; and serve to stifle knowledge transfer and innovation by restricting the capacity of universities to disseminate the results of the sponsored research for public benefit. This submission to the Review of the National Innovation System has been prepared by the legal counsel of all Go8 universities to propose options for addressing these issues. The Go8 believes that the Review presents an opportunity for the Commonwealth and the university sector to seek to reach agreement over a new set of principles to underpin research agreements--principles designed to ensure that Commonwealth/university research agreements serve to maximise efficiency, certainty and the potential for public benefit to flow from publicly funded research. This paper offers eight principles to stimulate discussion about the desirability and feasibility of Australia developing standard research contract "agreements" or "templates" which clarify and simplify the research contract negotiation process between the Commonwealth and universities. (Contains 3 footnotes.)