Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs)

Sharing and receiving materials between different academic and industry laboratories is a vital component of research in the life sciences. A material transfer agreement (MTA) is a legal contract governing the exchange of tangible research materials. MTAs define the rights and obligations of the receiving and sending parties in advance of transferring material.

If you require an MTA, please submit a request through Agreement Portal at the link below:

Please note: If you have been asked to sign an MTA by another party, please contact us first! Most require an authorized signature from TIDO.

If you have questions about the material transfer process or using Agreement Portal, please contact TIDO or email us at MTA@childrens.harvard.edu. See below for frequently asked questions about MTAs.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I receive materials from a colleague at another academic institute or industry lab?

Please submit an incoming MTA request through Agreement Portal here. For instructions for how to make an account on Agreement Portal, click here.

Incomplete submissions may delay the processing of your agreement.

TIDO will review the MTA and negotiate any necessary changes with the sending institution. When the MTA is completed, we will return a PDF of the fully executed MTA to you and to the sending institution.

A company has asked for non-human material that I have created — Can I send it to them?

Please do not send any material to a company before talking to TIDO. To begin the process, please contact your Licensing Manager. In certain situations, a license where Boston Children’s charges a company a fee for using your material may be more appropriate.

A researcher at another academic institute has requested non-human material from my lab–Can I send it to them

That depends on the kind of material. You can use our self-serve MTA if ALL the following conditions are met:

  • The materials are being distributed to other academics at non-profit research institutions for non-commercial purposes
  • The materials are not human tissue or other bodily samples
  • The materials do not raise safety concerns
  • The distribution of the materials is not subject to other legal or regulatory restrictions, such as export control laws or laws pertaining to special agents such as embryonic stem cells
  • The transfer is not restricted by third party obligations. For example, third party obligations may exist if the materials were generated under industry sponsored research or were generated with materials obtained from a third party via a MTA.
  • The materials are not being transported into or out of China. Materials going into or out of China are not eligible for the self-serve MTA.

If ALL the above conditions are met, you may download the self-serve MTA instructions and form here. Please complete the form and send it to the recipient institution for execution. You may distribute the materials after submitting an outgoing MTA request on Agreement Portal and uploading the fully executed UBMTA here. If these conditions are not met, TIDO will help with an appropriate MTA to enable the transfer. To begin the process, please submit an outgoing MTA request through Agreement Portal here.

Is sharing human samples different from sharing other materials?

Yes! Special protection must be put in place when sending samples from Boston Children’s patients. These are highly valuable and vulnerable materials. Contact TIDO before sharing any human material.

I am leaving/joining Boston Children’s — what can I do with the materials I have created so far?

First, confirm with the principal investigator of the lab you are leaving/joining that it is acceptable to bring the materials to your new lab. If you are a principal investigator then please contact us at the email address below. You cannot use the self-serve MTA for this process.

If you are joining Boston Children’s, please email us at MTA@childrens.harvard.edu. We will put an MTA in place with your old institution. This will allow you to freely publish your future work and protect any new inventions relating to the transferred research materials.