This manual contains a set of model clauses for the negotiation of Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) contracts and easy-to-understand explanations for non-lawyers. The toolbox enables users and providers of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge to set up an agreement that is adapted to the individual academic research situation. If mutually negotiated and agreed upon by the involved partners it ca yield a “Mutually Agreed Terms” ABS contract. The toolbox provides sectoral model contractual clauses for academic research in the sense of article 19.1. of the Nagoya Protocol. The Agreement serves as a template and can be applied to fill the gap where no national tools are available or in cases where agreements focus on commercial activities and are not applicable to academic research. The proposed text may also be used as a checklist for items that need to be agreed upon when negotiating access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing for academic research, or as inspiration for providers that draft standard contracts. The tool-box Agreement on Access and Benefit-sharing for Non-Commercial Research is made available free of charge as a text document. Users may adapt it to their needs, reproduce or share the original or the adapted version, under the condition that there is no monetary advantage linked to the transfer, and that the recipient is bound to the same conditions.
