What types of material transfer agreements (MTAs) are acceptable under NIH policy?
NIH does not require the use of a particular MTA for transfers of materials developed with NIH funding. However, when an institution uses an MTA to make a transfer to a not-for-profit entity, the terms generally should be no more restrictive than those in the Uniform Biological Materials Transfer Agreement (http://ott.od.nih.gov/newpages/UBMTA.pdf). For transfers of organisms, institutions may wish to consider the recently developed Material Transfer Agreement for the Transfer of Organisms (MTA-TO) used by the NIH, which contains terms specific to the transfer of animals (see http://ott.od.nih.gov). For transfers of related research resources, institutions may wish to use the Simple Letter Agreement (SLA) provided at http://ott.od.nih.gov/NewPages/SimplLtrAgr.pdf, or another document with no more restrictive terms, to readily transfer unpatented tools developed with NIH funds to other recipients for use in NIH-funded projects. If the materials are patented, other arrangements such as n
