TVO assists faculty with Materials Transfer Agreements (MTAs), enabling investigators to get rapid access to materials and transfer materials to others, while ensuring that the parties’ rights are fully protected.
An MTA is a written contract between a provider and a recipient of research material. The parties to the contract may be between academic, government, and commercial organizations. The sharing of research products is critical to continuing progress in science, and we work expeditiously to rapidly turn around these agreements which protect the rights of the different parties with regard to publication, freedom of research, confidentiality, and intellectual property. TVO negotiates and signs these agreements on behalf of Brown.
Transferring materials from Brown to a non-profit organization – If you are interested in transferring materials from Brown to a non-profit organization, usually a simple agreement called a Universal Biomaterial Material Transfer Agreement (UBMTA) can be used. Turn around time will usually be 24-48 hours. If you would like to implement the process, please fill out this brief questionnaire and a Material Transfer Agreement Form and send to TVO at TVO_patents@brown.edu.
Transferring materials from Brown to a for-profit organization – If you are interested in transferring materials from Brown to a for-profit organization, a Brown template agreement is used. Turn around time can be 24-48 hours, but sometimes negotiation is required which will take longer. If you would like to implement the process, please fill out this brief questionnaire and send to TVO as outlined.
Receiving materials from either a non-profit or a for-profit organization – if you are interested in receiving materials from either a non-profit or a for-profit organization and have received a draft MTA or are interested in initiating the process, please fill out this brief questionnaire and send to TVO as outlined. If you have received a draft please send it along to TVO at TVO_patents@brown.edu.
For further information on MTAs, please contact Margaret Shabashevish in the Technology Ventures Office at 401-863-7922.
