Revised NIH Parental Leave Policy for Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards

Notice Number: NOT-OD-16-105

Key Dates
Release Date: June 13, 2016

Related Announcements
NOT-OD-18-154
NOT-OD-08-064

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

Purpose

This Notice supersedes NOT-OD-08-064 and revises the parental leave policy for Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (Kirschstein-NRSA).

Current policy allows trainees on institutional research training grants (T32, T34, T35, and the NRSA component of T90), and fellows on individual research training fellowships (F30, F31, F32, and F33) to receive stipends for up to 60 calendar days (equivalent to 8 work weeks) of parental leave per year for the adoption or the birth of a child when those in comparable training positions at the grantee organization have access to this level of paid leave for this purpose. Either parent is eligible for parental leave. The use of parental leave must be approved by the training Program Director.

Revised policy: Effective immediately, all Kirschstein-NRSA trainees and fellows may receive stipends for up to 60 calendar days (equivalent to 8 work weeks) of parental leave per year for the adoption or the birth of each child. Either parent is eligible for parental leave. Kirschstein-NRSA trainees and fellows must provide advanced notification to the grantee institution prior to taking parental leave. Notification of supervisors and others about plans to use leave must be consistent with the organization’s policy and must be consistently applied regardless of the source of funds.

In addition to parental leave, Kirschstein-NRSA trainees and fellows are eligible for other types of leave (vacations and holidays, sick leave, etc.) as described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement.

For a listing of all NIH training grants and fellowships, see: https://researchtraining.nih.gov.

Inquiries

Questions concerning this notice or other policies related to Kirschstein NRSA awards should be directed to:

Division of Biomedical Research Workforce
Office of Extramural Programs
Office of Extramural Research
Website: https://researchtraining.nih.gov
Email: NIHTrain@mail.nih.gov