4 Public Policy Requirements, Objectives and Other Appropriation Mandates

NIH grants are subject to requirements intended to ensure that recipient organizations handle their Federal awards responsibly. Recipients are required to adopt and enforce policies that minimize the opportunity for improper financial gain on the part of the organization, its employees, and organizations and individuals whom they may collaborate, and that limit the potential for research results to be tainted by possible financial or other gain. In addition, NIH recipients are expected to provide safe and healthful working conditions for their employees and foster work environments conducive to high-quality research.

This chapter addresses public policy requirements, objectives, and other appropriation mandates applicable to NIH awards. The term "public policy" indicates that the requirement is based on social, economic, or other objectives or considerations that may be attached to the expenditure of Federal funds by recipients, subrecipients, and contractors, in general, or may relate to the expenditure of Federal funds for research or other specified activities.

In addition to cross-cutting requirements that some or all Federal agencies must apply to their grant programs, NIH recipients and subrecipients are subject to requirements contained in the HHS annual appropriations act that apply to the use of NIH grant funds, applicable provisions in other Federal agencies' appropriations acts, including Treasury, and other Federal statutes. Some of those requirements are included here in a separate section titled Appropriation Mandates since they have been included in the appropriations acts for several years with little or no change. Those requirements may be changed or other requirements may be added in the future.

The public policy requirements, objectives, and appropriation mandates listed in Exhibit 4 apply to all NIH awards with exceptions as noted.