42 U.S.C. § 284 — Directors of national research institutes

(a) Appointment The President appoints the Director of the National Cancer Institute. The Secretary, acting through the Director of NIH, appoints the Directors of all the other national research institutes and centers. Every institute or center Director reports directly to the Director of NIH. A Director the Secretary appoints serves a 5-year term. At the end of that term, the Director can be reappointed under the standards that normally apply to that kind of appointment, and there's no limit on how many terms a Director may serve. If a Director's office becomes vacant before the term ends, whoever fills it serves a full new 5-year term starting from the appointment date. Any Director already serving as of December 13, 2016 is treated as having started a new 5-year term on that date. None of this limits the Secretary's or the NIH Director's power to remove a Director before the 5-year term ends. Appointments and reappointments must be based on ability and experience relevant to NIH's mission, including meeting any legal requirements the Secretary or NIH Director thinks matter. A specific 1993 law restriction on hiring short-term consultants and scientists does not apply to Directors appointed this way. (b) Duties and authority; grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements To carry out NIH's mission on human diseases, disorders, and health, the Secretary, acting through each institute's Director: must encourage and support research on maintaining health; detecting, diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease; rehabilitating people with diseases, disorders, and disabilities; and expanding knowledge of how diseases and the body work, and how people interact with their environment; may conduct that research itself, subject to required peer review and any advisory-council review; must, where appropriate, support research that could transform the field, that carries higher risk, and that tackles major current challenges; may support research training, other than fellowships funded elsewhere or medical residency training; may develop and support programs that apply research results to clinical practice and disease prevention; may develop public and professional education and information programs; may build and maintain the resources research needs; may open institute facilities to appropriate researchers, and help federal and state public-health agencies; may accept unconditional gifts, and build a memorial for donors giving over $50,000; may hire consultants from the U.S. or abroad; may use other federal, state, or local agencies' services, equipment, staff, information, and facilities, with their consent, with or without paying them; may accept volunteer, unpaid help; and may do other things the Secretary decides are needed to carry out the institute's purpose. Certain federal indemnification rules for contractors apply to contracts made under this power. Grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements funding this work must first pass technical and scientific peer review. Grants and cooperative agreements up to $50,000 also need that peer review; ones over $50,000 need that peer review plus the relevant advisory council's recommendation. Each institute director must also, subject to certain accounting rules, receive its full congressional appropriation directly from the President and the Office of Management and Budget. Before awarding a new competitive research-program grant ("R-series grant") — not a routine renewal or supplement — the institute or center Director must personally review it, make the final award decision, and consider, as appropriate: the institute's mission and the priorities in its strategic plan; similar research other agencies are already funding; and advice from staff and the advisory council or board. (c) Coordination with other public and private entities; cooperation with other national research institutes; appointment of additional peer review groups In doing this work, each institute Director must coordinate, where appropriate, with similar programs run by other public and private groups, and cooperate with other institute Directors on multidisciplinary or multi-institute research. With the advisory council's input and the NIH Director's approval, an institute Director may also set up extra technical and scientific peer review groups beyond the ones NIH's Director already appoints, and choose their members. Directors may also publish, or arrange to publish, information about their institute's purpose without needing the usual government-printing approval. Federal rules limiting how long advisory committees may exist don't apply to these extra peer review groups.