42 U.S.C. § 283 — Triennial reports of Director of NIH

(a) In general: The Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) must send Congress a report every three years. The first report was due within one year after January 15, 2007. Each report must include: (1) An assessment of the state of biomedical and behavioral research. (2) A description of the research activities NIH's agencies run or pay for, and their policies for those programs. (3) A look at activities that involve more than one part of NIH. This includes (A) what percentage of each institute's or center's funding that year went to research done together with one or more other institutes or centers, and (B) recommendations for better sharing of information among centers of excellence. (4) A catalog of every research activity carried out by NIH's agencies. For each activity, the catalog must say which agency or agencies ran it, whether the agency did the work itself or just paid for it (and how involved it was), and whether a center of excellence carried it out. For clinical research, the catalog must, where appropriate, break down the people studied by things like biological and social traits and age group (including children), and by factors that affect minority health and health disparities. Where they apply, the catalog must also cover: studies that track health over time or across populations; disease registries, information clearinghouses, and other data systems; public education campaigns; training programs — including National Research Service Awards and Clinical and Translational Science Awards, graduate medical education programs (with numbers and types of degrees awarded), postdoctoral training grants, a breakdown by demographic group, and an evaluation comparing how well different training programs work; clinical trials — including a breakdown of who took part by study population and demographic group (including children), information each institute or center reported under section 289a–2(f), and anything else needed to show the trials followed section 289a–2 and other rules about including different demographic groups; and translational research done jointly with other Public Health Service agencies. (5) A summary of research across NIH's agencies, grouped by category where it applies: cancer; neurosciences; life stages, human development, and rehabilitation; organ systems; autoimmune diseases; genomics; molecular biology and basic science; technology development; chronic diseases, including pain and palliative care; infectious diseases and bioterrorism; minority health and health disparities; and any other categories the Director thinks are appropriate. (6) A review of every entity that gets funding as a "center of excellence." This review must evaluate each center's performance and research results, and recommend ways to make centers of excellence more effective, efficient, and productive. (b) Requirement regarding disease-specific research activities: Whenever a report under subsection (a) discusses research on one specific disease, disorder, or health condition, the Director must present the information in a standard format, state the exact dollar amount spent on it, and include a research plan. That plan must set goals for the research, explain how NIH will reach those goals, give a target date, and explain any changes made to an earlier version of the plan. (c) Additional reports: Besides the reports required by subsections (a) and (b), the Director of NIH — or the head of any national research institute or center — may send Congress any other reports they think are appropriate.