MTAShare is an online portal specifically designed to speed up and streamline the material transfer process. The system automates the creation, transfer and completion of MTA. Standardized MTAs are used in MTAShare, reducing transaction times and eliminating the need for negotiation.

• Gathers all relevant material transfer info from investigator on its own
• Gives investigators transparency into status of their MTAs
• Provides email updates to investigators as their MTA request progress
• Automates the creation of MTAs and sends to recipients
• Becomes more automated and efficient with more users
• Can automate both provider and recipient tasks between system users
• Is flexible to accommodate MTA processing differences among institutions
• Expedites MTA processing and completion – shortening MTA transaction times
• Relies on standard documents to eliminate negotiations
• Reduces the administrative burden of processing MTAs
• Creates an audit trail for MTA processing
• Provides administrative users with alerts to improve accuracy and reduce errors
• Helps identify export control issues
• Can be used for international transfers of materials

No, MTAShare only uses nationally established standardized documents: the UBMTA, the SLA, the Open MTA, and the AUTM versions of the UBMTA for biological materials, chemicals, genetically modified organisms and human tissues. Users familiar with these standards can rely on them being unaltered, having acceptable terms, and unnecessary to read each time they are received – a tremendous time savings. Custom institutional MTAs must be human-read each time received, regardless of their resemblance to one of the standards, and therefore cannot be automated and are not welcome in this automation system.

MTAShare does manage incoming MTAs as well as outgoing MTAs. If you receive an MTA from a provider that uses MTAShare, you will receive a standard template that you can accept without review (except, perhaps, an Appendix of additional terms), and the system will be able to recognize both parties and automate this transfer. However, if the provider is not an MTAShare user, then you may not get a standard template, and you may need to review and negotiate the terms of such MTA – in this case, MTAShare is still helpful, but acts more so as a document management system instead of an automation system.

No, although MTAShare was programmed by Inteum, it was built as a standalone system and is available to all interested customers, regardless of the technology management system used. For Inteum customers, agreement records can now be automatically created in Minuet after a request is made through MTAShare. An external API is being developed for similar transfer capabilities that can be built for other technology management systems.

The standard language of the MTA templates is NOT NEGOTIABLE – the deal with users of MTAShare is the recipient is provided a non-negotiable MTA, but also one that is an established standard and should be acceptable to the recipient (perhaps even without the need to read it). Certain of the standard MTAs – notable the AUTM versions of the UBMTA – allow the provider to include additional terms and conditions via an Appendix. The recipient only need review the Appendix to determine if the MTA is acceptable, and the terms of the Appendix added by the provider can be negotiable, separate from the base language of the standard template.

MTAShare can be made to share completed MTAs and corresponding information with an institution’s technology management system. Inteum has built the API for connectivity between MTAShare and Minuet. Other system providers can similarly build such connectivity to their system with an external API we are developing to be released later this year.

Yes, MTAShare integrates with DocuSign to deliver the agreement for review and signature, all in an automated fashion. Connect your institution's DocuSign account with MTAShare so that DocuSign takes the place of emailing a PDF to the recipient.

MTAShare does not interface with other MTA systems. Users can always create a record in MTAShare of an MTA processed using a third-party system (such as Addgene) so that all MTAs are in a single place.

Currently the system is only configured to process MTAs. However, the system has the potential to expand to process other contract types for which national standards contract exist (such as confidentiality agreements, data transfer/use agreements, etc). Planning for expansion to other types of contracts with national standards in in its early stages.

The AUTM versions of the UBMTA use the UBMTA language, but have three notable differences: (i) the AUTM derivatives use different definitions if the material to be transferred is a chemical, animal model or human tissue (as the UBMTA definitions do not track well with these types of materials), (ii) the AUTM derivatives eliminate references to U.S law, rule and regulation, so the MTA can be used for international transfers, and (iii) the AUTM derivatives include an Appendix that can be used to include additional terms and conditions to the transfer – all of the additional terms are in one, easy-to-review place, so that the body of the MTA remains unchanged and unnecessary to review.

Yes – since the system utilizes the AUTM derivatives of the UBMTA (all of which make no references to US law, rule or regulation, nothing prohibits using MTAShare for transactions outside the US. Further, US export control alerts are programmed into the system, aiding in ensure that materials transferred out of the US are done so with care.

Yes – MTAShare is able to interface with vendor SSO software, eliminating any barriers for researchers to access the system easily and efficiently. SSO compatibility is relatively quick to achieve (additional charge may apply).

For MTAs addressing unusual circumstances (e.g., when a non-standard template must be used, like in consortiums, or in a multi-party transfer), the administrator can interrupt the automation system and use an external MTA for a particular transfer as needed. In such case, MTAShare acts more as an information gathering and document management system. MTAShare is structured such that it is not convenient for the user to interrupt the automation function on a regular basis – making the system not useful for an institution that routinely wants to use a non-standard MTA template.

Yes, MTAShare can cover the transfer of research data along with non-human materials, and can cover the transfer of wholly de-identified human data along with the transfer of human materials. MTAShare is not recommended for use in transferring identifiable human data that is subject to HIPAA – instead it is recommended to use MTAShare for the human material transfer, and a separate DUA for the transfer of the associated identifiable human data. We are currently developing a DUA template to be made available on MTAShare.

The Open MTA template is programmed into MTAShare, but not used as a default selection (meaning the user can override the system and select it, but the system does not select it as a default option. The Open MTA will be programmed for full utilization in the next version of MTAShare as a convenience for those that want to use it as a default option.