Confidential Disclosure Agreements

Confidential disclosure agreements (CDAs), also called non-disclosure agreements (or NDAs), are an essential part of an early exchange of information. The University offers three types -- a mutual exchange, one way in (where the other party discloses to us but we disclose nothing to them) and one way out (where we disclose to the other party but they disclose nothing to us). It is important to specify the field of information discussed in the CDA.

If you are planning to communicate any confidential information to outside parties, it is required that you send a confidential disclosure agreement to the outside parties. Please contact the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) as far in advance of your meeting as possible to prepare the CDA forms for you. If an outside party provides their own CDA, please send it to the OTC for our review before signing.

Material Transfer Agreements

Material transfer agreements (MTA) are used when there is a transfer of a tangible item from the University to an outside party or from an outside party to the University; this applies to both research and industrial uses of the materials. For example, would be the provision of a monoclonal antibody to an outside organization in support of their research.

It is critical that you contact the OTC before there is any transfer of materials. In addition to protecting intellectual property rights with an Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA), we must also ensure that export control and other laws are not violated by the transfer. Please contact the OTC by email: OTC@uml.edu as far in advance as possible before the scheduled exchange to prepare the MTA for you. If an outside party provides their own MTA, please send it to the OTC for our review and execution of the agreement.

Please download and fill out the appropriate MTA Questionnaire forms and submit as soon as possible to the OTC via email: OTC@uml.edu.

Invention Disclosure Forms

Researchers at the University are encouraged to fill out an invention disclosure (cID) form as early as possible when they believe they have developed potential intellectual property. Please fill in the appropriate form below as completely as possible and submit it to our office.

Please note that we have revised our invention disclosure form as of October 2023. Old forms will be phased out and no longer be accepted.

Participation Agreement

All students and employees are required to sign the University's Participation Agreement upon entering the University. If there is someone in your lab that has not signed the Participation agreement, please have them fill out and submit the form below to OTC@uml.edu.

UMass Lowell's Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP, formally ORA) industry sponsored research agreements (SRA).