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What does a Material Transfer Agreement
do?
This legal agreement is required whenever material is being transferred
from one party (provider) to another party (recipient). It governs
such issues as:
- Ownership of the transferred material and any of the modifications
and derivatives made by the recipient;
- Any limits on the recipient's use of the material and reimbursements
for any costs of providing the material;
- Protection of either institution from legal liability as a
result of the use of the material by others;
- Confidentiality of information relating to the material, and
any issues regarding publications;
- Rights to inventions and use of research results, including
protection of related intellectual property rights or valuable
know-how.
What is "Material"?
"Material" may be any chemical compounds, any form of
biological materials (e.g., cultures, cell lines, plasmids, nucleotides,
proteins, transgenic animals or plants, or pharmaceuticals), or
information in various forms (e.g., data, databases, or computer
source code). This type of agreement is used when the University
of Minnesota either sends or receives any materials to or from other
institutions or to or from companies.
How do I obtain signatures for a proprietary
information non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or confidentiality agreement?
Any agreement that does not involve receipt of funding (i.e., not
a grant proposal) for which you need institutional signature, be
it an MTA, an NDA, or an unfunded research collaboration agreement
(RCA), is processed using a material transfer agreement routing
form (MTARF).
How long does it take to finish an agreement?
This varies, mostly dependent on the type of agreement used. A simple
letter agreement or the NIH "Uniform Biological Materials Transfer
Agreement" can be completed in a few working days and sent to the
other party for signature. A complex agreement with copious intellectual
property issues can take 3 months to complete depending on the availability
or willingness of the other party to negotiate.
How do I do it?
Click here
for instructions on how to initiate your MTA request.
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