Master Collaboration Agreement
A trust framework for research collaboration across TAHSN
Overview
The Master Collaboration Agreement (MCA) is a high-level legal agreement that enables TAHSN hospitals to simplify and align processes with the goal of supporting more streamlined and consistent research collaboration. It is a response to the legal and regulatory frameworks that exist among TAHSN hospitals, which have created significant challenges in activating research studies in a timely manner, substantial additional costs to research institutes and their hospitals, and risk with funders. Only research activities are currently in scope for use of the MCA. This page will be updated as new resources and information about the MCA are made available.
What you need to know
How is the MCA being developed? An initial MCA was executed by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and the University Health Network (UHN) in January 2025 and operationalized between these two parties. The operationalization of the agreement between the two institutions has been successful in substantially reducing study activation times, and enhancing satisfaction among users of the MCA.
In the second phase, the MCA was revised to become a multi-party agreement that was executed by CAMH, UHN, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Unity Health Toronto in December 2025. This multi-party version of the MCA is currently being tested by the four signatory institutions so that lessons can be shared to the TAHSN community and inform the next phase.
The next phase of work will involve applying lessons learned and enabling more TAHSN organizations to sign on. The goal is for all 14 TAHSN hospitals to become signatories to this collaboration.
What is governed by the current version of the MCA? A Research Addendum to the MCA has been developed which sets out the research activities that are in-scope for use of the MCA. This includes material transfer arrangements, data transfer arrangements, investigator-initiated clinical trial subsite matters, collaboration arrangements, service activities, visiting scientist arrangements and grant funding transfers.
How does the MCA work in practice? Within the research context, for each collaboration, a ‘Lead Organization’ will be identified from among the participating institutions. The Lead Organization is responsible for stewarding all approval processes required to activate the research through the Lead Organization. The Lead Organization would summarize the details of the research activity intended in an ‘Implementing Letter’ that will be signed by all institutions engaged in the research activity. In conjunction with the terms of the MCA, the Research Addendum and its schedules, the Implementing Letter acts as the authority for the conduct of the research activities, thereby eliminating the need for a new legal agreement for each research initiative and the need for each participating institution to undergo their own institutional approvals process, replicating the work of colleague institutions.
Change takes time. The MCA creates the conditions for more nimble and streamlined research collaboration across TAHSN institutions, however signing the agreement is just the first step. There is much more effort necessary to initiate changes in the way our research institutes operate, educate our teams, and support our researchers in effectively leveraging the benefits the MCA makes possible.
Resources
Participating organizations:
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
- Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
- Unity Health Toronto
- University Health Network
Questions?
For questions about the MCA, please contact tahsn@utoronto.ca.