AVAILABILITY OF SHORT-TERM RESEARCH TRAINING POSITIONS ON INSTITUTIONAL NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARDS FOR STUDENTS IN HEALTH-PROFESSIONAL DEGREE PROGRAMS NIH GUIDE, Volume 21, Number 11, March 20, 1992 P.T. 44 Keywords: Biomedical Research Training Educational Instruction Programs National Institutes of Health The NIH hereby announces the availability of short-term training positions for health-professional students on National Research Service Award (NRSA) predoctoral or postdoctoral institutional research training grants (T32). These short-term training positions are part of a continuing effort to increase the involvement of physicians and other clinically trained individuals in biomedical and behavioral research and particularly clinical research. Short-term research training positions are available to students in schools that grant degrees in medicine, osteopathy, optometry, pharmacy, dentistry, and chiropractic and veterinary medicine. These schools, for the purpose of this announcement, are termed health- professional schools. Short-term research training positions are intended to provide health-professional students with an opportunity for a time-limited exposure to research during "off-quarters" and summer periods and an opportunity to consider a career in research. Students selected for this program are encouraged to engage in at least two but no more than four short-term training appointments during the period of their professional predoctoral training. The NIH may not obligate more than 4 percent of the total NRSA budget on short-term research training, consistent with P.L. 99-158. Institutions may incorporate a request for short-term research training positions into new or competing continuation institutional research training grant applications beginning with the May 10, 1992 receipt date. Existing training grants with three or more years remaining in the award period may request short-term training positions as a competitive supplement for the September 10, 1992 and subsequent receipt dates. Prospective applicants are strongly advised to contact the appropriate NIH program administrator for specific information about application procedures and other special requirements. Specific guidelines for short-term traineeships are as follows: Eligibility: Eligible trainees are those students who have completed at least one quarter at an accredited health-professional school prior to participating in the program. Trainees need not be enrolled at the applicant institution. National Research Service Awards cannot be used to support training which leads to the M.D., D.O., D.D.S., D.V.M., or any other health professional degree. Individuals holding an M.S. or Ph.D. degree in the health sciences are not eligible for these awards. Additionally, students matriculated in a formal program leading to an M.S., a Ph.D., an M.D./Ph.D. or a similar research degree are not eligible for short-term research training positions. Within schools of pharmacy, only individuals who are candidates for the Pharm.D. degree are eligible. Citizenship Requirements: Appointees must be citizens or noncitizen nationals of the United States, or must have in their possession an Alien Registration Receipt Card (1-151 or 1-551) at the time of appointment. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible. Duration: A given short-term appointment usually will not be shorter than two months nor longer than three months. Participating institutions are encouraged to appoint trainees that are interested in reappointments in future years, so that each student receives more than one period of exposure to research training. Future applications for continued short-term training will be judged in part on the success of the institution in achieving multiple quarter-year appointments for the same student. Thus, students in the final year of health-professional training would not usually be eligible for a first appointment to a short-term traineeship; exceptions to this policy may be requested from the NIH awarding component. Appointments longer than three months are permissible, but, if a health-professional student plans to interrupt his or her studies for a year or more of full-time research training, a regular predoctoral position on the training grant should be used. Effort: Trainees must engage in full-time research training during the period of the appointment. Reporting Requirements: In the same fashion as other trainees appointed to research training grants, short-term trainees must complete and return to the NIH a Statement of Appointment Form (Form PHS 2271, revision 10/91) and a Payback Agreement Form (Form PHS 6031, revision 10/91). These forms must be completed and returned at the beginning of each appointment or reappointment. At the end of each appointment, a Termination Notice (Form PHS 416-7, revision 10/91) must be completed and returned to the NIH. NRSA Service Payback Obligation: Since the time spent in short-term research training will usually total less than twelve months, short- term trainees will usually have no service payback obligation. The time spent in NRSA support is, however, accrued along with any future NRSA support in calculating the total service obligation. This obligation requires that any NRSA support in excess of twelve months be repaid by an equal period of health-related research or health-related teaching. Short-term trainees, therefore, must be advised of the service payback requirement before an appointment to the training grant is offered. Specific information about the NRSA service payback requirement is available in the Guidelines for NRSA Individual Awards - Institutional Grants, NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, Vol. 13, No. 1, January 6, 1984. Number of Short-Term Training Positions on an Institutional Research Training Grant: The number of positions requested should be coordinated with the NIH awarding component and must not interfere in any way with the regular research training program. Stipends: Trainees appointed to short-term research training positions will receive a stipend of $734 per month. Training Related Expenses: The institution may receive up to $125 per month to offset the cost of tuition, fees, travel, supplies and other expenses. For these positions, tuition and fees cannot be requested separately. Indirect Costs: An indirect cost allowance up to 8 percent of the direct cost of the stipends for short-term research trainees will be paid to the institution, consistent with NIH policy on Institutional Research Training Grants. Application Characteristics: Applicants for research training grants who wish to include a request for a short-term research training program must use the instructions for Institutional Research Training Grants included with Form PHS 398. Information on the short-term research training program must be included in the application for the regular research training program, but should be separated from the description of the regular program within each section of the application. In addition to the information requested in the section called the Program Plan, the applicant should also address the relationship of the proposed short-term program to the regular research training program and provide assurance that the short-term program will not detract from the regular program. Applicants are reminded that the 25 page limit on the narrative section must be observed. Review Criteria: Review criteria for short-term training include: o the quality of the proposed short-term training program including the commitment of the participating faculty, the program design, the availability of research support, and the training environment, o access to candidates for short-term training and the ability to recruit high quality short-term trainees from the applicant institution or other health professional schools, o the characteristics of the training program that might be expected to persuade short-term trainees to consider academic/research careers, particularly in clinical areas, o the success in attracting students back for multiple short-term appointments, o the effects of the short-term training program on the quality of the regular research training program including the appropriateness of the number of short-term positions, and the plan to integrate the short- term training program into the regular research training program, o the plan to follow former trainees and assess the effect of such training on their careers.
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