Material Transfer Agreement
An agreement outlining conditions under which material is provided from the owner to another entity for a specific use. Material may be any chemical compounds or any form of biological materials, such as cultures, cell lines, plasmids, nucleotides, proteins, transgenic animals or plants, or pharmaceuticals. MTAs address such issues as: a) ownership of the transferred material and any of the modifications and derivatives, b) limits on the use of the material, c) confidentiality of information relating to the material, and publication restrictions, d) rights to inventions and use of research results, e) legal liability as a result of the use of the Material or any results obtained. (Source: NCURA Online Subaward Tutorial, 2006)