42 U.S.C. § 283n — Shared Instrumentation Grant Program

(a) Requirements for grants When deciding whether to award a grant under the Shared Instrumentation Grant Program, the Director of NIH must weigh five things: how much the instrument would help the scientific needs and research plans of its major users, by giving them an instrument that's unavailable or hard to get elsewhere; whether the user group or the applicant's institution has, and is committed to providing, the right technical expertise to use the instrument; whether the plan for organizing the instrument's use is solid, including the internal committee overseeing the applicant and any sharing arrangements; whether the applicant is committed to keeping the instrument running and maintained over time; and how much the instrument will actually be shared, and how much it will benefit the wider research community it serves. (b) Peer review When awarding these grants, NIH must follow the peer review rules set out in 42 U.S.C. § 289a.