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.


Return to 1992 Index

Return to NIH Guide Main Index


Office of Extramural Research (OER) - Home Page Office of Extramural
Research (OER)
  National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Home Page National Institutes of Health (NIH)
9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
  Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - Home Page Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS)
  USA.gov - Government Made Easy


Note: For help accessing PDF, RTF, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Audio or Video files, see Help Downloading Files.