MTAs are required by most academic institutions and commercial entities to protect the intellectual property and ownership rights for shared research materials. MTAs also protect academic rights and freedoms – such as the freedom to pursue a research topic and right to publish results – for the researcher and party providing the material as well as those receiving the research material.

SRAs cover projects funded by industry and must be consistent with and support the academic, research and/or healthcare mission of OHSU. SRAs typically govern the scope of work, budget, payment obligations and timing, options to license any intellectual property arising from completion of the research, publication of results, and other important items to complete a research project. The process for developing a SRA may be brief or lengthy, depending on the complexity of the program to be sponsored and what the sponsor expects in exchange for its support.

RSAs are often used for projects that involve the testing or evaluation of the sponsoring industry's proprietary new therapy, compound, diagnostic or device in a preclinical model. Typically the scope of work is entirely designed by the sponsor.

A Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) is a framework for how a collaboration or partnership is to proceed between two or more parties, what each party is responsible for under a scope of work, how materials and data are to be shared, what the publication rights of each party may be, and other aspects including how new intellectual property that may arise from the scope of work will be managed.