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How To Properly Fill and Sign the DTA

After we receive the signed DTA, if it looks valid to us, we send it to USC's Stevens Center for Innovation, which signs the agreement for USC. The processing time of USC Stevens varies, but it can take up to a month. Therefore, to avoid extra delays, it is critical to have the DTA filled properly and signed by the right people. Please, carefully, read the following comments, which address some of common mistakes, for which the form is returned to its sender, and make sure you follow them.

  1. The placeholders in the first paragraph of the first page ask for the official name of the recipient institution, its nature (e.g. a university or a research institute), and its address, respectively. It is also OK if you put the name of the PI, their job title, and office address there. But, do not put dates after the word 'between'.
  2. Article 1, item 1.2 should include the name of the principal investigator. This is the name of a person who is a full-time faculty member or research staff in the recipient institution, not a student. The name in this item must match the name in the Principal Investigator (PI)'s signature part at the bottom of page 5.
  3. Article 1, item 1.3 must be filled with a brief description of the research project for which the data is to be used. It does not have to include specifics of the research questions or methodology. However, it needs to explain what the project is about, not the funding information (e.g. grant number and funding agency). A line or two of text should be fine.
  4. Very Important This is by far the top reason forms are rejected. The signatory must be a designated official for this type of agreements who is authorized to represent the recipient institution, i.e. their signature is legally binding to the recipient institution. At USC and other universities, such agreements are signed by the office for technology licensing, which also handles data/material transfer agreements between universities. If your institution does not have a dedicated unit for handling such agreements, you might obtain the signature of the dean instead if the dean's signature is legally binding. Eventually, USC Stevens's Center for Innovation is the entity who determines whether the signatory is adequate or not.