Picture a small vial of seawater, collected from a rocky Antarctic shoreline. A researcher labels it, transports it back to a lab, and eventually extracts a microorganism from it. That microorganism gets sequenced, studied and documented. At some point, a colleague at a partner institution wants to study it too.
This raises two very practical questions. First, can that data actually help someone else find and understand the microorganism? Second, can the physical sample itself move safely and legally to another institution? Two concepts answer these questions, and both sound more technical than they really are: FAIR data principles, and Material Transfer Agreements.
What are FAIR data principles?
FAIR is an acronym. Each letter describes a quality that good research data should have, based on the official FAIR principles from the international GO FAIR initiative.
Findable comes first. Clear, well-structured metadata makes data easy to locate, essentially a label describing what the data is, where it came from and how researchers collected it. Without this, a dataset might exist somewhere, but nobody would ever find it.
Accessible comes next. Once someone finds the data, they need to retrieve it under clearly stated conditions. This does not necessarily mean the data is free for anyone to download. It simply means the access conditions stay transparent and consistent.
Interoperable matters just as much. Researchers need to structure data so it combines cleanly with other datasets. Imagine two teams, one in Spain and one in Ukraine, each collecting samples using different formats and naming conventions. If their data isn’t interoperable, combining their results becomes a slow, frustrating, manual task.
Reusable rounds out the list. Good documentation lets someone else, perhaps years later, understand the data and use it again without asking the original researcher to explain everything from scratch.
Together, these four principles make science more efficient, more transparent and more collaborative, especially in large, multi-partner projects that generate data across several countries and institutions.
What is a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)?
While FAIR principles deal with data, a Material Transfer Agreement deals with something more physical: the actual sample itself. According to the European IP Helpdesk, an MTA is a contract that governs the transfer of physical research materials, such as a sample, a cell culture or an extracted compound, from the organisation that owns it to another organisation that wants to use it.
An MTA typically sets out several important things. It defines what the recipient is allowed to do with the material, for example, whether it can only be used for research or also for commercial purposes. It clarifies who owns the material and anything derived from it. It often includes confidentiality terms, and conditions around publishing results based on the material.
Without an MTA, sharing a physical sample between institutions is legally unclear and risky for everyone involved. With one in place, both sides know exactly what is and isn’t allowed.
Why this matters more in marine biodiversity research
Marine biodiversity research generates an unusually large amount of both data and physical material. Every sampling expedition produces water samples, sediment samples, isolated microorganisms and the genomic data extracted from them. Multiply that across multiple partner institutions, multiple countries and multiple sampling sites, and the need for clear, consistent rules becomes obvious very quickly.
This is especially true for extreme environments. Samples from remote or hard-to-reach locations, such as Antarctica, are difficult and costly to collect. That makes it even more important that once collected, the resulting data and materials are properly documented, findable and shareable under clear terms, so the value of that original fieldwork isn’t lost or duplicated unnecessarily.
Why this matters for EXPLORA
EXPLORA works across two very different sampling sites: the acidic waters of Rio Tinto in Spain, and the icy environment of Antarctica. Our consortium includes 13 partners across 9 countries, which means data and physical samples regularly move between institutions. Applying FAIR data principles and using proper MTAs when transferring samples is part of how our team keeps this large, distributed collaboration running smoothly and responsibly.
Learn more at our upcoming webinar
This is exactly the kind of topic our upcoming joint webinar will unpack in more depth. On 28 September, EXPLORA joins three partner projects from the Synergy at the Extreme cluster, NEXTMARINE, XTREAM and XTREMOLIFE, for a session dedicated to data governance, FAIR principles and Material Transfer Agreements, alongside other legal frameworks relevant to marine biodiversity research. You can read more about the full programme in our webinar announcement.
📅 Monday, 28 September 2026
🕙 10:00–13:00 CEST
💻 Online via Zoom
🔗 Join the webinar
Whether these terms are new to you or you already work with them regularly, this session offers a practical look at how they apply to real marine research. We hope to see you there.
