Material Transfers

Tangible Research Materials

Tangible research materials refers to tangible items produced during the course of academic research and includes biological materials such as clones, plasmids, gene fragments DNA probes, hybridomas or other cell lines and transgenic animals.

At Cornell, tangible research materials are officially transferred off-campus by a contract called a Material Transfer Agreement, or MTA. MTAs permit biological and physical materials and similar specimens owned by Cornell to be transferred to researchers at other universities and corporations.

A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) must be executed before any materials can be transferred, whether they come into or go out of Cornell, in order to provide the university an opportunity to review its legality, administrative feasibility, and compliance with Cornell's policies.

Incoming and outgoing MTAs

CCTEC handles "outgoing" MTAs, meaning that if an outside organization wants to use Cornell research material, CCTEC will handle the transaction. To handle "incoming" MTAs, companies should go to Cornell's Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) to enquire.

The MTA contract spells out clearly and for the record:

• The material proposed to be transferred;
• The purpose of the transfer;
• Responsibilities relating to compliance with local, state, and federal regulations;
• Rights and interests each party may have in the materials or in the results derived from using the material;
• Disposal of the excess or unused material;
• Liability and indemnification;
• Warranty, if any; and
• Reimbursement for costs associated with the transfer (e.g. costs in preparing the materials and for shipping etc.), if appropriate.

Why MTAs are Important

A Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) must be executed before any materials can be transferred, whether they come into or go out of Cornell, in order to provide the university an opportunity to review its legality, administrative feasibility, and compliance with Cornell's policies. The MTA also provides for the proper documentation of the materials at Cornell.

With the maturation of the biotechnology industry and increased awareness of intellectual property issues in other industry sectors, the transfer of tangible research materials has become quite an important process with significant legal and liability consequences. Unfortunately and because of the potential for such unpleasant consequences, the process occasionally becomes an onerous one for some participants. It is therefore important to understand the relevant issues related to the transfer of tangible research materials and to work with Cornell administration, through either the Cornell Center for Technology Enterprise and Commercialization (CCTEC) or the office Sponsor Program Services (SPS) to navigate the process.

When an outside company requests any tangible research material from Cornell, the external party, especially if it is a for-profit organization, now routinely demands significant rights to the results and the intellectual property that may be developed by the company using the material. Further, the external party may restrict the dissemination of the research results. Such demands may conflict with university missions and policies, and occasionally if accepted may also jeopardize the university's tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) corporation under the US Tax Code.

Such material, once received, also may not be re-transferred. Conversely, if a Cornell researcher sends a patent-protected research material out of Cornell to a third party, the researcher may be inducing the recipient to infringe on our own patent, which may have been licensed exclusively to a commercial entity. The transfer may therefore create conflicting obligations. Therefore, the university must review all material transfer requests and keep track of all the materials that move in and out of the university.