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III. Agreements to Transfer Materials

B. The "Uniform Biological Material Transfer Agreement," or "UBMTA"

In the early 1990s, various non-profit research organizations, universities, and the NIH together realized that the MTA was an annoying, bureaucratic nuisance. All agreed on the major principles governing the transfer of materials among each other; all agreed not to do anything unethical or stupid with each other’s research materials. So, they wondered, why must every MTA be re-negotiated? To avoid the unnecessary extra paperwork, the academic community created the UBMTA 33

See the web page of the Association of University Technology Managers, at http://www.autm.net

-- a "treaty," for lack of a better description -- to which any non-profit organization or university could become a member. Under the UBMTA, any signatory could transfer materials to any other signatory, using a pre-negotiated form which could be signed directly by the scientists doing the transfer, rather than an administrator. The UBMTA is not mandatory, so that if the provider has a special interest in the transferred materials (say, because the technology is exclusively licensed to a company), the provider could revert to the standard MTA process.

To the extent it has been utilized, the UBMTA process has dramatically streamlined the process and decreased the time needed to arrange for the transfer of materials among members. Unfortunately, the UBMTA has not been used as much as it might be. Part of the reason appears to be a lack of awareness that the mechanism exists, and another part seems to be that the UBMTA is a confusingly written document. The largest part, however, appears to be the fact that universities and non-profit organizations are marketing their technologies more aggressively, signing exclusive arrangements with companies more often, and thus finding that the UBMTA is not adequate. Still, it remains a valuable tool.

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Page Last Updated: 12-02-2008