Material Transfer Agreement and Commercial License Enquiries

Our standard terms of supply are for non-for-profit research or educational/teaching use.

We also offer a range of licenses for:

Quality control (QC) use
Strain screening
Commercial evaluation
Commercial use

You can find our material transfer agreement and more information about how to enquire about commercial use below.

Non-commercial use

If you are purchasing strains for non-commercial uses such as education or research, you must read and sign our material transfer agreement before we can process you order.

Some key points of the agreement are listed below.

"MATERIALS may only be used for the purpose of scientific research, teaching or quality control purposes (PERMITTED USE). For the avoidance of doubt, this excludes clinical and animal testing and shall expressly exclude any COMMERCIAL USE. MATERIALS must only be used by members of the same laboratory or scientists working collaboratively on a defined project within the same company group or institution as the RECIPIENT or as part of any research group within the same organisation as the RECIPIENT. The MATERIALS must not otherwise be distributed to or used by a third party unless agreed upon in advance with NCIMB.

The activities of NCIMB are guided by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation (Nagoya Protocol). Further information and guidance concerning the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/abs. MATERIALS are transferred on the condition that the RECIPIENT and any PERMITTED USERS agree to use the MATERIALS and any associated or arising DATA in compliance with international laws and conventions, including the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol. The RECIPIENT agrees to undertake their own due diligence under the Nagoya Protocol in connection with their receipt and use of the MATERIALS and further agrees to comply with the provisions of any Nagoya Protocol Materials and retain such Nagoya Protocol Materials for a minimum period of 20 years after the MATERIALS are last used.

Material Transfer Agreement

Download the material transfer agreement
for signing

Commercial use

Our culture collection is a fantastic genetic resource for industry, and we offer licenses for commercial use of our strains. We offer a range of options for different end uses and stages of development:

Quality control (QC) use
Strain screening (for commercial research and development)
Commercial evaluation (for commercial research and development)
Commercial use (in a commercial product or process, or to provide a commercial service).

These uses are not permitted without the appropriate license. For more information please contact us using the form on this page or by emailing enquiries@ncimb.com.

We try to accommodate our customer needs and operate a flexible licensing model with terms varying depending on the size of company, the product or application and stage of development.

Please note that fees charged for the supply of cultures, or for the granting of a commercial license by NCIMB are a contribution to our costs of sequencing, storage, and maintenance of the culture collection as a whole, and use of the NCIMB catalogue numbering system to identify the strain.

Information you provide will be used in accordance with our privacy policy