MTA Survey
The AUTM Material Transfer Agreement Survey looks specifically at material transfer agreements (MTAs) and how institutions manage them. Most academic institutions execute MTAs to exchange research materials between other academic research institutions or industry. This survey attempted to identify institutional resources used in the execution of MTAs, when these agreements are used, terms found in them and potential problems and stumbling blocks during negotiations.
The survey launched in August 2009 and was made available to 387 U.S. and Canadian institutions. Data gathering was complete by the end of 2009 with a 21 percent response rate.
Highlights from the AUTM 2011 Material Transfer Agreement Survey Report include:
- Approximately 74 percent of institutions required an MTA for incoming materials and about 85 percent required an MTA for outgoing materials.
- Approximately 78 percent of responding institutions have two or fewer full-time equivalent employees dedicated to the negotiation and management of MTAs.
- 65 percent of institutional respondents indicated that they received and executed 100 or more MTAs in 2008 and 25 percent reported executing more than 300 incoming MTAs in 2008.
- For academic-to-academic transfers, only a minority of institutions used standardized agreements made available by the National Institutes of Health.
- 79 percent of MTAs received from companies in 2008 were executed in three months or less and 45 percent were completed in one month or less.
- For MTAs received from academic and non-profit institutions, 92 percent were completed in three months or less and 71 percent were completed in one month or less.
Download MTA Survey Report
Learning More from Others
Several organizations have published information on MTAs: