From the Science Commons blog …

Looking for a better understanding of our Biological Materials Transfer Agreement project? Look no further.

The latest edition of Innovations features an in-depth analysis of our Materials Transfer work, one of our three main areas of focus at Science Commons. The analysis was written by Science Commons counsel Thinh Nguyen, who also leads our efforts in this area.

In the article, Nguyen provides the necessary background information about the current system of transferring biological materials between research institutions, and the contractual framework associated.

From the article:

“Access to unique research resources, such as biological materials and reagents, is vital to the success and advancement of science. Many research protocols require assembling a large and diverse set of materials from many sources. Yet, often the process of finding and negotiating the transfer of such materials can be difficult and time- consuming. […]

[…] Science Commons’s Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) Project seeks to reduce unnecessary barriers to the transfer and reuse of basic research materials and reagents, for both United States and international scientific collaboration, by proposing a scalable and flexible infrastructure for searching, negotiation and tracking.”