42 U.S.C. § 288 — Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards

(a) Biomedical and behavioral research and training. The Secretary must (A) give "Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards" for research and training at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and at "the Administration," for biomedical, behavioral, and health services research (including primary care research) at public and private nonprofit groups, and for pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training of people who will do biomedical or behavioral research; (B) make grants to public and nonprofit private institutions so those institutions can hand out their own such awards, to people the institution picks, for the same kinds of research and training; and (C) provide contracts for scholarships and loan repayments under sections 288-4 and 288-5, but no more than 50 of these contracts total across fiscal years 1994 through 1996. Wherever this subsection mentions "the National Institutes of Health," that includes all of the institutes, agencies, divisions, and bureaus that are part of NIH or the Administration. These awards cannot be used to pay for residency training of physicians or other health professionals. When deciding who gets an award, the Secretary must think about the country's overall need for biomedical research workers, and must give special consideration to physicians who agree to do at least two years of biomedical research. The Secretary must run this program in a way that brings women and people from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic minorities) into biomedical and behavioral research careers and research training. (b) Getting an award. No individual can get one of these awards unless: they applied and the Secretary approved it; they gave the Secretary satisfactory assurance, in whatever form the Secretary requires by regulation, that they will meet the service requirement described in subsection (c); and, if the award is for research or training at an outside public or private nonprofit entity, the entity where the work will happen has sponsored them in the manner the Secretary requires. The Secretary sets the required form, manner, and content of applications by regulation. Grants made to institutions under subsection (a)(1)(B) must first be reviewed and approved by the Department of Health and Human Services advisory councils whose work relates either to the research or training being funded or to the entity that will do it. No such grant can be made unless the institution's application has been submitted to and approved by the Secretary, in the form and manner the Secretary requires. Awards made under these institutional grants otherwise follow the Secretary's regulations. No individual award can run longer than five years total for pre-doctoral training or three years total for post-doctoral training, unless the Secretary waives that limit for good cause. Awards must cover stipends, tuition, fees, and allowances (including travel, living costs, and dependency allowances), adjusted from time to time for the cost of living, in whatever amounts the Secretary thinks are needed. When the award pays for research or training at a non-federal public or private nonprofit institution, the award must also pay that institution for its support costs — things like faculty salaries, supplies, equipment, and general research support. The Secretary decides how much to pay the institution, based on the institution's reasonable costs of keeping up the quality of its research and training programs. (c) Service obligation after a postdoctoral award. Anyone who receives one of these awards for postdoctoral research training must later spend time doing health-related research training, research, or teaching (or some mix of these), for the length of time set out below, following the normal patterns of scientific employment. That required period is 12 months, or one month for every month the person received a postdoctoral award, whichever is shorter. If someone's award ran longer than 12 months, every month of award activity past the 12th month counts toward satisfying this service requirement. The person must complete the requirement within a reasonable time after their award ends, as the Secretary sets by regulation; the Secretary also decides by regulation what kinds of research and teaching count and sets any other conditions. If a person who owes this service fails to complete it in time, the United States can recover money from them using this formula: A equals phi times the fraction (t minus s) over t. Here, A is the amount owed back to the government; phi is the total amount paid to the person under all of their awards; t is the total number of months of service they owed; and s is the number of months they actually served. In plain terms: take the total amount the person was paid, multiply it by the share of the service period they did not serve, and that is the amount they owe. That amount must be paid back to the United States within three years of the date the government becomes entitled to collect it, and interest accrues on any unpaid balance at a rate the Secretary of the Treasury sets by looking at prevailing private consumer interest rates. The service obligation is fully canceled if the person dies. The Secretary must also, by regulation, allow the obligation to be waived or paused whenever meeting it is impossible for the person, would cause them serious hardship, or would be unfair or against good conscience.