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Research collaborations often require the transfer of research materials and samples between research groups in different universities and companies.  Whilst this is a valuable aspect of scientific research, it is necessary to ensure the original source of the material is recognised as the legal owner ('Provider') and the team who put the resource into it's development, and also to give the owner some protection by setting out any conditions and liabilities regarding use of the material.  This can be done through a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA).

An MTA is a simple legal agreement that covers the transfer and use of one or more materials from the owner to the researcher and organisation ('Recipient') wishing to use the material for research purposes.  Generally an MTA will address the following issues:

• Definition of the material
• Clear description of the experiments the recipient can conduct with the material
• Recipient's obligation of confidentiality on the results and any key information relating to the material given by the provider
• Provider's access to research results and publication of the results
• Intellectual property ownership and management
• Warranty disclaimer and indemnification
• Governing law
• Safety of use

In-coming MTA

(ie Bristol is the recipient of the material)

The provider of a material will usually have a standard MTA which they will require to be signed before releasing the material.  If the providing party do not have such an agreement, an agreement should still be put in place before the materials are received.  RED can draft an agreement for this purpose.  In both cases, the MTA must be approved and signed by RED to ensure terms comply with University's liability insurance.

If you wish to receive any research material from a third party please complete our MTA questionnaire (Word, 22KB).  Return the completed questionnaire, together with the provider's MTA if available, or otherwise details of the providing organisation and the materials, to RED (Amaya.Iriondo-Coysh@bristol.ac.uk).

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Out-going MTA

(ie Bristol is the provider of the material)

Out-going MTAs must also be approved and signed by RED to ensure terms comply with the University's liability insurance.  If you wish to send out any research material to a third party please contact RED (Tegan.Everett@bristol.ac.uk) and we will draft a suitable MTA for you.

In order to draft the MTA we will need to establish the following:

• Is the recipient a university/research institute or a company?
• Who owns the material?  Are we free to send it out to third parties?
• Is the Material published?
• If published is it easily reproducible?
• Is it available from other sources?
• Who should own any data generated by recipient?
• Do we need access to the recipients data?  For research purposes?  For commercial purposes with a third party?
• Can the recipient publish without your permission?
• Should you be acknowledged in any publication?
• Should you be a named author on any publication?

Any revenues from out-going MTAs, after recovery of any direct costs, will normally be distributed to the relevant academic department to utilise at its discretion.

These notes and the accompanying.form have been prepared with acknowledgement to Mr Brian Leslie for use of extracts from the 1998 AUTM Educational Series publication "Material Transfer Agreements".

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