Agreements For Researchers

Under the University’s Policy on Approving and Signing Authority (PASA), Technology Transfer and Innovation (TTI) has oversight on agreements relating to materials transfer and the development, licensing or commercialisation of the University’s IP, including non-disclosure agreements for the licensing of University IP.

  • Material Transfer Agreements (MTA)

    • An MTA formalises the transfer of tangible material (which may include, but is not limited to biological material such as reagents, software, chemicals or other research tools) from one party to another.

    An MTA governs the rights, obligations, and restrictions of both the providing and receiving parties regarding the ownership, publication, intellectual property rights and permitted uses and liabilities


    Outgoing Material

    When other organisations request material from you, an MTA must be put in place to govern the terms and conditions of the use of the material by the recipient

    Download our MTA Request Form and submit it to us here


    Incoming Material

    When you request material from another organisation, you will usually be requested to sign an MTA provided by such organisation.

    Download our MTA Questionnaire and submit it together with the MTA draft of the external party (if available) to us here


    Intellectual Property and Commercialisation Agrenments

    To safeguard the interests and rights of the University in its IP, TTI undertakes the negotiation, drafting and finalisation of IP Management Agreements with the University’s collaborators and IP joint owners and License Agreements and Options to Evaluate with companies for the commercialisation of University IP. TTI will also put in place the necessary non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to help facilitate the discussions on IP management and commercialisation when confidentiality of the subject matter under discussion is required. If you have previously submitted an Invention Disclosure (ID), do approach the relevant Technology Manager assigned to manage your ID if there is any interest by a company in commercialising the invention.


  • Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA), Confidential Disclosure Agreements (CDA) or Confidentiality Agreements (CA)
    • An NDA, CDA or CA is a legal agreement between two or more parties to protect the knowledge or information exchanged so that information remains confidential and is not disclosed to any other party not included in the agreement.

    An NDA, CDA or CA is often used for the purpose of discussing the details of potential research partnerships, licensing arrangements, and/or inventions or ideas before intellectual property protection is put in place or when confidentiality is essential.

    When only one party is disclosing the confidential information a unilateral NDA, CDA or CA is put in place. When two or more parties are disclosing confidential information to each other, a bilateral or multi-lateral NDA, CDA or CA is used instead.

    Download the NUS’ standard NDA template here.

    If the NUS standard NDA template is used WITHOUT any modifications, then the completed agreement can be approved and signed by the appropriate NUS authorities, consistent with the NUS’ Policy on Approving and Signing Authority, without TTI’s review.

    If, on the other hand, an NDA template is provided by the external party, or modifications to NUS’ template are required, then please complete our NDA checklist and submit it together with the proposed NDA here for review.