Material Transfer Agreements

Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) outline the rights and obligations (i.e. rights of publication, inventorship, liability, etc.) of parties sending or receiving research material.  All transfers of research material in or out of Johns Hopkins University need to be memorialized in an agreement.

JHTV reviews MTAs that cover a wide variety of situations. However, in certain circumstances, requests to transfer research materials should be submitted to other offices for inclusion in other types of research agreements.

Material transfer requests should be sent to your Research Administration office when:

1. Protected health information (SOM and SON), including limited data sets, are being transferred with the material;
2. The transfer of the research material is accompanied by research funding from the Provider of material (i.e., beyond the costs associated with the preparation and shipping of the research material);
3. The parties are jointly developing protocols, jointly analyzing results, or otherwise significantly contributing to a joint research project as part of the material transfer; or
4. The materials are being transferred pursuant to a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA).

Additionally, for School of Medicine faculty, your Research Administration office handles when:

1. The material (drug or device) will be transferred between JHU and another entity as part of an active clinical trial or clinical research study;
2. An outbound transfer of material is subject to the Biospecimen Transfer Policy; or
3. JHU is serving as a coordinating center, repository, core facility or service provider.

School of Medicine agreements with non-commercial entities are handled by Research Administration and agreements with commercial entities are handled by the Johns Hopkins Office of Clinical Trials (JH-OCT)

If you are faculty or staff, and have additional questions about where to submit, please use the below questionnaire/wizard which will lead you to the right office.