Sample Letter of Permission/Cooperation

{Please reformat as required and Print on Letterhead}

UC Berkeley Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects 1 c/o Office for the Protection of Human Subjects 2150 Shattuck Avenue, Suite 300 Berkeley, CA 94704-5940

{Date}

Please note that Mr. David Fannon, UC Berkeley Graduate Student, Professor Edward Arens, and Research Scientist Hui Zhang from the Center for the Built Environment at the University of California Berkeley have the permission of {Company} to conduct research at our {Location} office for the study, “Methodology for field-testing thermal ergonomics: A pilot study of low-energy personal thermal control systems”. {Company} has no financial or intellectual property stake in the devices used for this study and agree to be a study location only to support this research and to have access to the aggregate results.

The local management at our {Location} office will inform the employees there of this upcoming research project, and that participation is entirely voluntary. We understand that the research team will recruit employees by emailing an invitation to participate in the study, and our human resources staff will provide a list of email addresses for this purpose. We agree not to exert undue influence on our employees regarding their participation in this study and that our managers will not be involved in the selection or informed consent process. Neither participating, nor declining to participate in this study will affect any employee’s status, compensation or benefits in any way.

We understand that this study includes installing Personal Environmental Control Systems at the workstations of employees who elect to participate, and that these devices draw electrical power. We further understand that this study includes installing a small application onto company computers and transmitting data over the company network and internet connection. The research team has agreed to coordinate with our IT staff regarding these technical issues. We agree to allow the research team to collect data about the office environment using sensors and by surveying the participating employees. Employees will be allowed time from their work duties to complete these short surveys.

Finally, the research team has also agreed to provide our company a copy of the University of California, Berkeley CPHS-approved informed consent document before recruiting participants, and will also provide a copy of the aggregate results of the study.

If there are any questions, please contact me.

Sincerely,

{NAME}, {Title}