Confidential Disclosure Agreements

In order to ensure the protection of confidential information shared for research studies between OSU and a sponsor, a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA) or Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) may be executed. These contract agreements are handled by The Office of Technology Licensing and Commercialization (TLC) in the Office of Research.

These agreements can only be executed by individuals with signature authority for each party. For OSU, there are only two people with this authority, and they are both located in the Technology Licensing & Commercialization (TLC) office. The CDAs cannot to be signed by individual researchers or investigators. If a PI receives a CDA to complete from a sponsor they should notify TLC so that the appropriate person can complete the agreement on behalf of the university. There is an electronic CDA (e-CDA) request form available through the TLC website. TLC will put the confidentiality agreement in place and provide the PI with a copy of the agreement for the records.

It is important that PIs and other research team members of the studies do not disclose confidential information to others outside of OSU without a CDA.   Each individual involved in the study should be aware if there are confidentiality agreements in place and be familiar with the specifics of those agreements. In particular, what kind of information can be shared, when it can be shared, in what manner and with whom.