The MTA at Addgene

If you’ve deposited or requested plasmids from Addgene, then you’ve been involved in the material transfer agreement (MTA) process. Even though this process is essential to sharing plasmids around the globe, it can be a bit of a mystery for those who aren’t familiar with it. If you’re curious about the hows and whys of the material transfer agreement, read on! 

What is the MTA? 

An MTA is simply a contract or agreement that states the terms of use for a tangible research material that is shared between two parties. There are many different flavors of MTAs, but the Uniform Biological Material Transfer Agreement (UBMTA) is one of the most commonly used ones for transfers between academic institutions. 

What is the UBMTA, you ask? Well, organizations used to negotiate individual MTAs every time they wanted to share materials, and the process was time-consuming and lengthy. So the NIH called a meeting in 1990 to discuss the process, which eventually led to the creation of a standardized agreement on the transfer of biological materials in 1995: the UBMTA. Because biological materials are widely varied with many properties, having well-understood standardized terms makes it a lot easier for organizations to make policy decisions on research use agreements. The UBMTA, which is the MTA most plasmids at Addgene are shared under, is well-understood and accepted by the majority of research institutes. 

Pro tip! In most academic and nonprofit institutes, the Tech Transfer department is responsible for managing research use agreements like MTAs. 

Addgene does a lot to ensure that we can facilitate a fast and agile MTA process. This is important to keep up with the number of requests and deposits in our repository. From 2004 to 2023, we facilitated 784,795 MTAs with 8,798 organizations in 111 countries. From 2019 to 2023, we averaged facilitating 89,477 MTAs per year. 

The MTA Process at Addgene

As a repository, Addgene doesn’t actually own the majority of the materials we distribute; therefore we are not a party (signatory) to the MTAs for plasmids in our repository. Instead, we facilitate the signing of MTAs by the Provider and Recipient (in Addgene parlance, the depositor and requestor) organizations. Over the last twenty years, we’ve developed a pretty smooth system for this process. We often get positive feedback on “our” MTAs, which sometimes makes people think our MTAs are different than other institutes. But they’re not! The vast majority of our plasmids are distributed under the UBMTA, which is widely used across academia. It’s our process that differs. 

When you deposit a plasmid with Addgene, your organization’s tech transfer office is sent a deposit agreement. The One-Time Plasmid Deposit and Distribution Agreement establishes the terms under which your material will be distributed. In signing this agreement, your organization agrees to let Addgene receive, store, and distribute your material under the specified terms. This acts as the signature on any subsequent MTA for that plasmid facilitated by Addgene — basically, instead of having to sign individual MTAs for each request, the depositing organization signs one form that can be used for every MTA request going forward. 

After another scientist has placed a request for your plasmid, they must complete a Recipient Scientist Acknowledgment (RSA), which contains the terms of use for the requested material. Once the RSA is completed, the recipient organization is sent the MTA to sign. Once they've signed and returned the MTA, Addgene can move forward with shipping the material to the requestor. 

Why the MTA? 

The MTA process can be a bit confusing, and it’s certainly frustrating to find out your plasmid hasn’t shipped because a form needs to be signed. But the truth is, meaningful progress depends on things being organized, tracked, and clearly communicated. And that’s where MTAs, and similar agreements, shine. 

These types of agreements allow for centralized tracking when biological reagents are shared — both at what time and with whom. Tracking these connections allows the community to understand and grow the scientific ecosystem, including understanding how shared materials are used to drive forward new discoveries and developments. 

MTAs also mean that everyone is on the same page as to how the shared reagents should be used. Setting clear expectations from the beginning makes the sharing process smoother, more consistent, and more pleasant for everyone, which in turn encourages people to share more, since they’ll be confident in what to expect. No system, including MTAs, is perfect, but it does provide consistency and transparency in an otherwise messy process. 

And you do have options for the terms you want to share your biological materials under! While most plasmids at Addgene are shared under the UBMTA, researchers additionally have the option of distributing under Addgene’s Industry MTA (IMTA), which allows the plasmids to be distributed for research use only to industry-based scientists. Some organizations choose to share their plasmids under an OpenMTA, which allows plasmids to be used for both research and commercial purposes. It’s important to note that it’s the depositing institute that decides the terms of distribution for their plasmids.

MTAs at Addgene

Since Addgene was founded in 2004, we’ve handled the majority of our MTA requests and signatures via an online process, though the process has changed a lot over the last twenty years! This has helped us develop a fast, agile approach, which we’ve updated and refined as new technology becomes available. Our one-time deposit agreement means we only have to work with one tech transfer office when materials are requested, instead of coordinating signatures from two different institutes. Our online portal automates a lot of the process, from notifications and emails to generating the UBMTA link for the recipient organization upon purchase. We recognize exceptionally fast tech transfer offices with the Golden Stopwatch award and seek feedback as to how we can make our process easier for others. 

If you’ve still got questions about our MTA process, you can check out our Tech Transfer Webpage, help center articles, and our MTA YouTube video for more information. Happy transferring! 

Many thanks to our Tech Transfer team members Maura Coughlin, Darcy Morse, and Matt Takvorian for their help with this post.