ISSN : 2348-8808 (Print ), 2348-8867 (Online) Journal of AgriSearch 1(4): 242-245 Issues for Exchange of Plant Genetic Resources: Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) NIDHI VERMA*, SK YADAV, ANITA P, SP SINGH, AK SINGH 1 AND YJ KHAN Germplasm Exchange Unit, NBPGR, Pusa Campus, New Delhi (India) ABSTRACT Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) is a contractual document that governs the transfer of tangible research materials between two parties where the recipient intends to use in the recipient’s research program. It is an agreement outlining conditions under which material is provided from the owner to the recipient for a speciic use. The MTA deines the rights of the provider and the recipient with respect to the material and its derivatives. Material could be a wide range of biological resources viz., seeds, plants, cultures, cell lines, plasmids, nucleotides, proteins, transgenics etc., any form of chemical compound and even some types of software. The MTA is legally binding for the use of material and the research results obtained thereof. It limits on the use of the material, conidentiality of information, speciies publication restrictions and the rights to inventions and utilisation of the results. There may be different types of MTA i.e. transfer between academic or research institutions, transfer from academic institution to industry and transfer from industry to institution and all of these would have different terms and conditions agreed upon by both the parties. Keywords: Material Transfer Agreement, Treaty, Plant Genetic Resources, Exchange ARTICLE INFO Received on : 17.09.2014 Revised received on : 30.09.2014 Accepted on : 12.10.2014 Published online : 05.12.2014 1 ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna, Bihar (India) *Corresponding author E-mail: nidhipgr@gmail.com Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) deines the rights of the provider and the recipient with respect to transfer of the material and its derivatives. It is an agreement between parties that governs the transfer of tangible research material in which the recipient intends to use the material for research purposes (Rodriguez, 2005 and Tyagi et al., 2010). Material could be a wide range of bio-resources viz., seeds, plants, cultures, cell lines, plasmids, nucleotides, proteins, transgenics etc. or any form of chemical compound and also some types of software (Rodriguez, 2007). It is a document in which the conditions under which the transfer of material is made is provided from the owner to the recipient for a speciic use (Tyagi et al., 2010). MTA addresses the issues of liability, publication, and intellectual property rights that may result from the research. In addition, concerns such as limits on the use of the materials are included in MTA prior to the transfer of material. MTA is made to address various issues such as ownership of the transferred material and any of its modiications or derivatives. It limits on the use of the material, confidentiality of information, specifies publication restrictions and the rights to inventions and utilisation of the results. The MTA is generally legally binding for the use of material and the research results (Tyagi et al., 2005). This is done to establish ownership of the material, give some legal protection to the institution and the providing scientist from potential liability resulting from the use of the material, and assure that the source of the material is identiied and given appropriate credit in any resulting publications (Rodriguez et al., 2007). The MTA could be of various types, viz., between two academic or research institutions; academic institution and industry and vice versa and all of these will have different terms and conditions as agreed upon by the parties (Tyagi et al., 2005). There are multilateral agreements also, which SHORT NOTE