42 U.S.C. § 287a–2 — Rare disease regional centers of excellence

(a) Cooperative agreements and grants. (1) The Director of the Office of Rare Diseases, working with the directors of other relevant NIH institutes and centers, may make cooperative agreements with, or grants to, public or private nonprofit entities. This money pays all or part of the cost to plan, start, strengthen, and run regional centers of excellence that do clinical research on, train people in, and demonstrate ways to diagnose, prevent, control, and treat rare diseases. (2) These agreements and grants must follow policies NIH's Director sets. (b) Coordination with other institutes. The Director must coordinate this work with similar work done by other NIH research institutes, centers, and agencies, and by the FDA, wherever their responsibilities also touch rare diseases. (c) Uses for federal payments. Money paid under a cooperative agreement or grant here can cover: (1) staffing, administrative, and other basic running costs, including the patient-care costs research requires; (2) clinical training — including training allied health professionals, continuing education for health professionals, and public information programs about rare diseases; and (3) clinical research and demonstration programs. (d) Period of support. A center can be supported for up to 5 years at a time. The Director can extend that support for more 5-year periods, if an appropriate technical and scientific peer-review group has reviewed the center's work and recommends extending it.