Access for Users at Academic Institutions:  Researchers at academic not-for-profit institutions may access TMRI genomic rice sequence data for non-commercial research use.  Access is free of charge and is covered by the Free Public Access Agreement for SBI Whole Genome Sequence.  Requestors must qualify as an Academic User under Definition 1 in this agreement.

• An Academic User is someone who meets all of the following criteria: (a) is at least 18 years old; and (b) is employed by, or a student at, or a scientist legitimately affiliated with an academic, non-profit or government institution; and (c) whose access is on behalf of and in the interest of such academic, non-profit or government institution and is not on behalf of a commercial entity; and (d) has provided SBI with all requested registration information.

• Under the Free Public Access Agreement for SBI Whole Genome Sequence, which must be signed by the requesting academic user, SBI will send academic users the entire unannotated draft assembled sequence of the rice genome on a CD-ROM.  Academic users may use the sequence data for their research, publish their results, and apply for patents and license their discoveries, after agreeing to use the data for non-commercial research purposes only.  Please see the link below for instructions and access to the agreement (Free Public Access Agreement for SBI Whole Genome Sequence).

• There are no provisions of reach-through to discoveries made by users.  There is no prior review of publications nor any restrictions on publication of the users results.  SBI does ask that only those SBI sequence data which are scientifically relevant and necessary be included in the publication.  Academic users can request that SBI deposit SBI sequence in GenBank on behalf of authors if required for publication by the journal.

• Reproduction or redistribution of the SBI sequence data to or for a third party is not permitted. 

Access for Requestors at Commercial Organizations:  Users at commercial organizations may access the SBI data at no charge by executing a Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) (Materials Transfer Agreement for Commercial Entities).  Use of the data is for non-commercial research purposes only and limited to specified verification and validation studies. 

• The MTA permits users at commercial organizations to publish their results from the verification/validation studies, but only those SBI sequence data which are scientifically relevant and necessary may be included in the publication. 

• Users at commercial entities are not permitted to deposit SBI data in any public or private database or to distribute SBI data to any third party or to anyone outside the recipient scientists laboratory.

Note that the above summary is intended for discussion purposes only.