> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://studies-guides.jaspari.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Collaborate with Other Organizations on a Study

> Invite another organization to a study at a scoped tier. Ownership and billing always stay with the organization that owns the study.

A study always has exactly one owning organization. Any other organization accesses it as a collaborator at a specific tier. This model supports sponsor-CRO partnerships, research organizations with multiple sites, and network models where independent clinics work on studies owned by a central organization, with each organization maintaining separate teams and access.

Ownership does not split between organizations. Collaborators operate within their assigned tier, and ownership transfers only through an explicit ownership transfer process.

## The four tiers

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Owner" icon="crown">
    The organization the study belongs to. Full control, plus the only tier that can remove a collaborator, withdraw a pending invite, or accept an ownership transfer. Billing always follows the owner.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Manager" icon="align-vertical-distribute-center">
    Can work volunteers and edit study setup. Can assign their own sites to the study and invite additional collaborators. Cannot transfer ownership or remove collaborators.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Recruiter" icon="users">
    Can work volunteers: update volunteer status, book and reschedule visits, reassign a volunteer's site, add notes. Cannot touch study setup, sites, or invite anyone else.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Viewer" icon="eye">
    Read-only. Can see the study, its volunteers, and its collaborators. Cannot change anything.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Note>
  A tier caps the whole collaborating organization, all of it, rather than just one person within it. If your organization is invited at Recruiter tier, nobody there can edit study setup, including their own Organization Admin. See [Roles & Permissions](/sharing/roles-permissions) for how this combines with a person's own role at their organization; the lower of the two always applies.
</Note>

## Your organization's sharing code

Every organization has its own sharing code: an 8-character code shown on **Settings → Organization Info**, next to a Copy action. Give this code, along with your organization's exact name, to any organization you want to invite as a collaborator. You can rotate the code at any time from the same page; rotating it immediately invalidates the old one.

## Inviting a collaborator

You can invite a collaborator from two places: the **Shared Studies** page, or a single study's own **Shared With** setup step. From Shared Studies, select **Share study** to invite an organization to one or more of your studies at once; from a study's own Shared With step, the invite is scoped to that one study only.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Enter their sharing code and organization name">
    Both must match the same organization, exactly as it is registered. This confirms you are inviting the correct organization.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select the studies to share">
    From the Shared Studies page, select any number of your owned studies. From a study's own Shared With step, the study is already fixed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select a tier">
    Choose Manager, Recruiter, or Viewer. Owner tier only moves through an ownership transfer, described below.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send it">
    The invitation is valid for 14 days. The invited organization's admin has to accept it before their team gets access. If it is not accepted in time, it expires and can be resent.
  </Step>
</Steps>

To invite a collaborator, your own organization must own the study or already hold Manager tier on it. Recruiter- and Viewer-tier collaborators cannot invite further collaborators.

## Tracking invites

The Shared Studies page lists every invite your organization has sent or received, across all studies, in one place:

* **Invites received**: pending invites from other organizations, with Accept and Decline.
* **Invites sent**: pending or expired invites your organization has sent. An expired invite can be resent; an unanswered invite can be withdrawn before it is accepted.

## Billing always stays with the owner

The owning organization is billed for the study. This never changes based on how many organizations collaborate on it or which tier they hold. A Viewer-tier sponsor watching enrollment progress, a Recruiter-tier clinic working volunteers day to day, a Manager-tier CRO editing eligibility criteria: all of them leave the bill with the owner's account. A collaborating organization's own billing settings show no invoices or charges for a study it doesn't own, regardless of tier.

The only way billing responsibility moves to a different organization is a full ownership transfer.

## Transferring ownership

Sometimes a study needs to change hands entirely. A CRO that set up a study on a sponsor's behalf might hand it fully to the sponsor once they're ready to run it directly, for example.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Invite first">
    The target organization has to already be an active collaborator on the study. Transferring ownership requires that existing collaboration.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Propose the transfer">
    Only the current owner's admin can propose it, and only to that already-invited collaborator.
  </Step>

  <Step title="The new owner accepts">
    Only their organization's admin can accept the transfer. The organization must have a saved payment method and sufficient wallet balance to meet the deposit minimum.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Ownership moves">
    Once accepted, billing and study ownership transfer to the new organization. The previous owner retains access at Manager tier.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Either side can cancel a pending transfer before it's accepted.

## Removing a collaborator

Only the owning organization's admin can remove a collaborator. This is stricter than inviting, which a Manager-tier collaborator can also do. Removing an organization cancels its in-flight visits on that study and ends its team's access immediately, while leaving that organization's own studies, team, and independent work untouched.

## Multiple clinics collaborating on a central organization's studies

One organization owns and manages studies, with multiple independent clinics collaborating on them at Manager or Recruiter tier. Each clinic maintains its own team, roles, and sites. At Manager tier, clinics help manage study setup and work volunteers. The owning organization retains billing responsibility and final control.

<Tip>
  Invite each clinic at the tier that matches what they need to do day to day. Recruiter tier fits a clinic that only works volunteers; Manager tier fits one that also needs to attach its own sites to the study.
</Tip>


## Related topics

- [Roles & Permissions](/sharing/roles-permissions.md)
- [Managing Sites](/sharing/sites.md)
- [Pipeline and Lead Statuses](/studies/pipeline-statuses.md)
- [Payment Methods](/billing/payment-methods.md)
- [Credits](/billing/credits.md)