Whenever you become involved in the transfer of tangible research materials, outbound or inbound, the University requires that you work through The UAB Research Foundation (UABRF) to put a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) in place to facilitate the transfer because these transfers involve important rights and obligations. MTA’s address ownership of the transferred materials, and ownership of modifications or derivatives made by the recipient from the materials. They also address limits on the use of the materials by the recipient institution, confidentiality of information related to the materials, liability issues, publication rights, and rights to inventions and research results. Materials that are commonly transferred under MTA’s are cultures, cell lines, plasmids, nucleotides, proteins, bacteria, transgenic animals, pharmaceuticals, and other chemicals. Intangible research materials, such as data and software, are generally transferred under Confidentiality Agreements (CDAs), and are processed by UAB’s Office of Grants and Contracts Administration, unless an Intellectual Property Disclosure (IPD) has been filed with UABRF. If an IPD has been filed, then the Agreement would be processed by UABRF. NOTE: MTAs may contain limitations on the use and transfer of Materials and/or technology and information provided by other sources and authorize use only by the PI thereunder. Failure to resolve this potential conflict or non-compliance with terms of this or any other MTA prior to signing the MTA would likely result in a breach in the agreement(s) by UAB.
The penalties for the breach of an agreement, including an MTA, can be serious, including the refusal to provide Materials in the future or a grant of ownership of the results and/or automatic grant of exclusive licenses to the Provider of the Materials of any inventions or discoveries arising out of the use of the Materials and potentially blocking UAB’s or your further development of the inventions.
Please note: Effective November, 2010 only current forms will be accepted.
For MTA inquiries, contact MTA Info.
Transferring Your Materials
Receiving Materials