Material Transfer Agreement Process Made Simple

On December 2nd, the handling of Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) by the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) enters a new era. The long-standing template Agreement on the OTL Web Site will be replaced by an innovative, online system that allows an investigator at an academic or non-profit institution who wants to obtain biological or other research material from a JHU faculty member to have their MTAs processed literally in minutes without any exchange of paper. All that will need to happen to set up an MTA is for the Hopkins faculty member to send a link to the system to the requester (http://webapps.jhu.edu/ mtaonline/).

The inauguration of the web-based system in December is the culmination of an effort throughout the year by OTL to streamline the MTA process. Responding to concerns of Hopkins faculty that the process for handling the Agreements was too cumbersome and time-consuming, OTL introduced the "One-Page" MTA template early in 2002. OTL believes the replacement of the MTA template on the OTL Web Site (http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/lbd/otl/ index.html) will mark the first time a major academic institution has used an online solution to process these Agreements.

The requester will need to click on "Create An MTA" when the site is accessed. This step will be followed by a series of pull-down menus. The Affiliation "JHU" or "HHMI" will need to be selected followed by the appropriate department (i.e. SOM Oncology) for the JHU faculty member. The name of the Hopkins faculty member (the "Provider") will appear on a list in the next pull down menu. After the Provider has been selected, the online system will ask for relevant information about the requester and the material to be transferred. The system will also provide instructions on how to proceed. The web-based system is "paperless" because the Agreement can be signed by the requester and approved by the requester's institution through the use of "electronic signatures."

Hopkins MTAs are to be used only for transfers of materials to investigators at academic or non-profit institutions for internal, non-commercial research purposes. If the requester is working for a commercial entity or desires to commercialize the results of the research using the materials, JHU will need to enter into a Non -Exclusive License with the company.

For more information about the web-based MTA system, please contact Michael Segle, Small Agreements Manager for OTL at 410-347-3208 or msegle@jhmi.edu.

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