The transfer of materials and data into the College, and outside of the College, is a common occurrence in life sciences research; examples of such material/data would include:
- DNA/Blood
- Plasmids
- Data concerning DNA
- Patient Data
- Cell Lines
- Active Ingredients of Pharmaceuticals
- Devices/Apparatus
In many cases, the material or data being transferred is proprietary and/or confidential to the transferring party. In such circumstances, the transfer of the material/data by the transferring party should be made conditional on the conclusion of a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA). The terms of such MTA’s, and particularly MTA’s prepared by Industry, can often be quite onerous, and can result in the provider of the material having “reach through” rights on the results of your research.
To assist in the smooth transfer of material/data into and out of the College, the Technology Transfer Office will review any third party MTA’s and, if need be, renegotiate the terms. In the case of material or data which is proprietary to the College, the Research Institute will prepare suitable MTA’s in consultation with the Principle Investigator which protect the PI’s and the College’s ownership, publication and confidentiality rights.
All MTA’s should be in the name of the RCSI, and not an individual Department, School or Lab within the College. Further, they must be signed by an authorised signatory for the College.