DRAFT - IGA BTW OME AND ASU, OPTIMIZING DNA FROM BURNED BODIES 2023.11.20.DOCX

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Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) for Data Sharing and Material Transfer 
Between
Arizona Board of Regents for and on behalf of Arizona State University
And Maricopa County through the Office of the Medical Examiner
This Intergovernmental Agreement (“IGA” or “Agreement”) No. C-29-XX-XXX-X-XX is entered 
into pursuant to A.R.S. §§11-951 et seq., between Maricopa County through the Office of the 
Medical Examiner (“MCOME”) and the Arizona Board of Regents for and on behalf of Arizona 
State University (“ASU”), which shall be collectively referred to as the Parties and each individually 
as a Party.  The IGA originated under C-29-20-007-3-00; however, all available terms were used 
resulting in the need for a new Agreement.
1.
PURPOSE OF THE AGREEMENT:
This Agreement establishes the basis for the MCOME to allow ASU to conduct research using 
samples from decedents who are severely burned.  Samples will be collected only following 
approval from next of kin.  The research will extend ability to extract DNA profiles of sufficient 
quality, improving capabilities for identification of unidentified decedents using ancient DNA 
(aDNA) technology.
The sharing of such records and samples will be in accordance with the terms and conditions 
stated in this Agreement and predicated on the mutual assurance that all unique identifiers 
will be protected and kept strictly confidential.
2.
TERM OF THE AGREEMENT:
The term of this Agreement is entered into January 1, 2024 and shall terminate on December 
31, 2024 unless otherwise terminated or canceled as provided herein.  A one-year extension 
may also be granted with approval from both Parties.
This Agreement may be executed in two or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed 
an original but all of which together shall constitute the same instrument.  Faxed, copied, 
scanned, and electronic signatures are acceptable as original signatures.
3.
TERMINATION OR AMENDMENT:
Each Party shall have the right to terminate this Agreement by mailing the other Party written 
notice of termination by certified mail, return receipt requested, at least thirty (30) days prior 
to the termination date. This Agreement may be modified at any time by mutual written 
amendment signed by the authorized representative of the respective Parties.
4.
CONFIDENTIALITY:

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A. Any information that may be exchanged through this Agreement shall be subject to 
the requirements of Section 15, and not be used for purposes other than those covered 
in the Section 15 Scope of Work without prior approval of all parties to this Agreement.
B. Neither medical information nor personally identifying information that may be 
exchanged through this Agreement shall be made available for any political or 
commercial purpose, nor shall such information be used as basis for determining 
eligibility for care or source of payment for care to any individual.
5.
PUBLIC RECORDS:
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement, the Parties acknowledge that they are 
subject to A.R.S. 39-121 through 39-128 regarding public records. Any provision regarding 
confidentiality is limited to the extent necessary to comply with the provisions of Arizona law.
All reports of the medical examiner are subject to additional protections provided for by ARS 
§ 11-597.02 and Schoeneweis v Hamner, 223 Ariz. 169, 221 P.3d 48 (App. 2009). ASU shall 
not disclose reports originating from the medical examiner. ASU shall direct all individuals 
making a request for medical examiner reports in ASU’s possession to the MCOME for such 
reports. 
6.
APPLICABLE LAW:
This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State 
of Arizona. In addition, ASU’s obligations hereunder are subject to the laws of the State of 
Arizona and the policies of the Arizona Board of Regents. The Parties agree that the venue 
for any claim arising out of any or in any way related to this Agreement shall be Maricopa 
County, Arizona.
7.
COMPLIANCE WITH FEDERAL LAWS:
The Parties warrant that they are in compliance with all State and Federal laws. 
8.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-511, the State, its political subdivisions or any department or agency 
of either may, within three (3) years after its execution, cancel any Agreement, without penalty 
or further obligation, made by the State, its political subdivisions, or any of the departments or 
agencies of either if any person significantly involved in initiating, negotiating, securing, 
drafting or creating the Agreement on behalf of the State, its political subdivisions or any of 
the departments or agencies of either is, at any time while the Agreement or any extension of 
the Agreement is in effect, an employee or agent of any other Party to the Agreement in any 
capacity or a consultant to any other Party of the Agreement with respect to the subject matter 
of the Agreement. A cancellation made pursuant to this provision shall be effective when ASU 
or Maricopa County through the Office of the Medical Examiner receives written notice of the 
cancellation unless the notice specifies a later time.

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9.
ARBITRATION:
Pursuant to A.R.S. §12-1518, disputes under this Agreement shall be resolved through the 
use of arbitration as follows:
a) Cases under the Jurisdictional Limit. The parties agree to arbitrate disputes filed in 
Arizona Superior Court that are subject to mandatory arbitration pursuant to A.R.S. § 
12-133.  A.R.S. § 12-1518 requires this provision in all ASU contracts, unless all 
parties file a written stipulation waiving the arbitration requirement, and the court 
waives the arbitration requirement on a showing of good cause.
10. FUNDING:
This Agreement is not an obligation of or a commitment of funds, or a basis for a transfer of 
funds, but rather a statement of agreement between the Parties concerning the sharing and 
use of information related to the purposes of this Agreement. Expenditures by each Party 
are subject to that Party's budgetary processes and to the availability of funds and resources 
pursuant to applicable laws, regulations, and policies of the respective Parties.
11. RELATIONSHIP:
Nothing in this Agreement shall make any ASU employee or MCOME employee an agent or 
employee of the other party to this Agreement.
12. INSURANCE:
The Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner and ASU are self-insured for liability per 
A.R.S. § 41-621.
13. INDEMNIFICATION:
Each Party (as "indemnitor") agrees to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the other Party 
(as "indemnitee") from and against any and all claims, losses, liability, costs, or expenses 
(including reasonable attorney's fees) (hereinafter collectively referred to as "claims") arising 
out of bodily injury of any person (including death) or property damage, but only to the extent 
that such claims which result in vicarious/derivative liability to the indemnitee are caused by 
the act, omission, negligence, misconduct, or other fault of the indemnitor, its officers, officials, 
agents, employees, or volunteers. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement to 
the contrary, the parties acknowledge that ASU is a public institution and instrumentality of 
the State of Arizona and, as such, any hold harmless provision is limited as provided by the 
laws of the State of Arizona, including without limitation, Article 9, Section 7 of the Arizona 
Constitution and Sections 35-154 and 41-621 of the Arizona Revised Statutes.  ASU’s liability 
under any hold harmless claim is therefore limited to claims for property damage, personal 
injury or death to the extent caused by acts or omissions of ASU.

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14. BACKGROUND:
ASU is conducting a research study entitled “Optimizing the Analysis of DNA from Burned 
Bone using Ancient DNA Techniques” (“Research Project”) under the direction of Anne Stone, 
PhD, Regents Professor (“ASU Researcher”).  Human skeletons subjected to temperatures 
over 600 degrees Celsius have significantly reduced amounts of DNA available for short 
tandem repeat genotyping and downstream next generation sequencing analysis.  This 
makes identifying decedents difficult.  The purpose of this study is to test the limits of DNA 
recovery from fire death victims using a suite of cutting edge genomic technologies.
15. SCOPE OF WORK:
A. MCOME agrees to:
i.
Provide ASU with notification about potential donors.
a) Cases will be selected based on set criteria:
1.
The individual has sustained thermal injury involving bony structures.
2.
The bony structures exhibit enough thermal injury to potentially affect 
DNA.
3.
Preferably the individual exhibits thermal bone injury of varying 
degrees.
4.
OME retains the discretion to determine which cases and specimens 
meet the criteria for providing information to ASU.
ii.
Provide ASU with contact information for Next of Kin to these potential donors.
iii.
Upon receiving ASU’s documentation that informed consent has been obtained 
from the Next of Kin, provide ASU with up to four specimens per case, less 
than two inches in length, of various levels of burned bone. 
a) Specimens will be assigned a novel number that will be shared with ASU 
(different from the OME case number).
B. ASU agrees to:
i.
Use contact information provided by OME to obtain informed consent from 
Next of Kin and provide documentation that informed consent was granted.
ii.
Provide a courier to pick up specimens from OME and transfer them to ASU.  
This courier will complete chain of custody paperwork upon accepting 
specimens.
iii.
Maintain specimens in a secure location at ASU until sampled.

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iv.
Destroy the specimens once research is completed and notify OME of 
destruction.
C. Confidential Information:
i.
The Parties agree to provide information following a mutually agreeable format.  
All confidential information in any records furnished shall be marked 
confidential if disclosed in written or other tangible form, or if disclosed orally 
or visually, identified as confidential at the time of disclosure and reduced to 
writing and marked confidential and transmitted to the receiving Party within 
thirty (30) days of the initial disclosure.
ii.
Without MCOME prior written approval, ASU will not use, or disclose to any 
third party, confidential information contained in the any records of MCOME in 
any manner whatsoever except for the "Purpose" stated in Section 1 and will 
require that its employees and agents, and third parties, who have access to 
such confidential information maintain the same in strict confidence after the 
termination of this Agreement; provided that ASU's obligations hereunder shall 
not apply to information that was already known to the receiving Party prior to 
the time of first disclosure, as demonstrated by contemporaneous, written 
documentation; or
a) At the time of disclosure is in the public domain, or after the date of the 
disclosure, lawfully becomes a part of the public domain other than through 
breach of this Agreement by the receiving party; or
b) Is received without any obligation of confidentiality from a third party having 
a legal right to disclose the same; or
c)
Is independently developed by the receiving Party by individuals without 
access to such information, as demonstrated by contemporaneous, written 
documentation; or
d) Is required to be disclosed by the receiving Party pursuant to a legally 
enforceable order, subpoena, or other regulation ("ORDER"), provided, 
however, that the receiving Party promptly notifies the disclosing Party in 
advance of such disclosure and discloses only that INFORMATION 
necessary to comply with said ORDER.
D. Data Rights and Protection:
i.
ASU agrees to carefully restrict use and access of information to those 
persons designated by ASU and agrees that MCOME retains ownership of 
its Data. Data provided by MCOME for review by ASU are for the use of the 
research project only and no copies may be made of such records to provide 
to other individuals or entities, or for any other purposes. ASU may not 
release, store, save, disseminate or otherwise use Data in any manner or 
form that is not authorized in this Agreement. Notwithstanding the forgoing, 
ASU shall be permitted to freely publish, without prior MCOME written 
approval, Data in aggregate form with no identifiers.

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ii.
ASU agrees that it is responsible for safely maintaining the integrity and 
confidentiality of MCOME’s data received or under its control as a result of 
the Agreement.  ASU will immediately notify MCOME upon discovery of a 
breach of the Data, and will work cooperatively with MCOME to terminate, 
minimize, and resolve the breach.  
iii.
ASU shall prohibit identifying information about a person that was supplied 
under the terms of this Agreement from being released to anyone not 
working on the research project.
iv.
ASU shall require all officers, agents and employees to keep all such shared 
confidential information strictly confidential as set forth in Section 15C. To 
communicate the requirements for this section to all officers, agents and 
employees, to discipline all persons who may violate the requirements of this 
section and to notify the originating Party in writing within forty-eight (48) 
hours of any violation and corrective actions to be taken.
E. Title to any intellectual property conceived, expressed, and/or reduced to practice 
as a result of performance of this Agreement will belong to the creator or author, 
which will be determined in accordance with United States patent and copyright law.  
16. AUTHORITY:
A. This Agreement does not imply authority to perform any tasks, or acceptance 
responsibility, not expressly stated in this Agreement.
B. This Agreement does not create a duty or responsibility unless the intention to do so 
is clearly and unambiguously stated in the Agreement.
17. SECTION HEADINGS:
Sections and other headings contained in this Agreement are for reference purposes only and 
shall not affect in any way the meaning or interpretation of this Agreement.
18. NOTICES, CORRESPONDENCE, AND REPORTS:
Notices, correspondence, and reports shall be sent to:
COUNTY
Formal Notices to ASU
Administrative Director
Kristy Macdonald, Assistant Director
Maricopa County Office of the
ORSPA, KED
Medical Examiner
PO Box 876011
701 W Jefferson Street
Tempe, AZ 85287-6011
Phoenix AZ  85007
ASU.awards@asu.edu
Phone:  602-506-3322
Research Reports to ASU:
Anne Stone
Director, Molecular Anthropology Laboratory
School of Human Evolutions & Social Change
       900 Cady Mall, SHESC Bldg. Room 233
Arizona State University
Commented [AR(1]:  Is this contact correct?

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Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
Phone: 480.727.6310 or 602.561.8872
SIGNATURE APPROVALS:   
COUNTY
By:___________________________________
Chairman, Board of Supervisors
(DATE)
APPROVED AS TO FORM
ATTEST
By:__________________________________
By:_______________________________
Attorney for the Board of Supervisors  (DATE)
Clerk of the Board of Supervisors    (DATE)
ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS
APPROVED AS TO FORM
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF ARIZONA
STATE UNIVERSITY
By:_________________________________
By:________________________________
Kristy Macdonald, Asst Director (DATE) 
(DATE)
Research Operations