(a) Within the limits of funds available, and upon such recommendation as may be required by law, the Secretary shall award grants to those applications with proposed biomedical research programs which will, in the Secretary's judgment, best promote the purposes of this part, taking into consideration among other pertinent factors:

(1) The benefits that can be expected to accrue to the national effort in biomedical research and in increasing the pool of biomedical researchers;

(2) The institution's capability, from a scientific and technical standpoint, to engage in biomedical research;

(3) The benefits that can be expected to accrue to the institution and its students;

(4) The administrative and managerial capability and competence of the applicant;

(5) The availability of the facilities and resources (including where necessary collaborative arrangements with other institutions) to engage in biomedical research;

(6) The applicant's relative need for funding; and

(7) The overall significance of the proposal in terms of numbers of ethnic minority persons benefited thereby.

(b) The notice of grant award specifies how long HHS intends to support the project without requiring the project to recompete for funds. This period, called the project period, will usually be for 1-5 years.

(c) Generally the grant will initially be for one year and subsequent continuation awards will also be for one year at a time. A grantee must submit a separate application to have the support continued for each subsequent year. Decisions regarding continuation awards and the funding level of such awards will be made after consideration of such factors as the grantee's progress and management practices, and the availability of funds. In all cases, continuation awards require a determination by HHS that continued funding is in the best interest of the government.

(d) Neither the approval of any application nor the award of any grant commits or obligates the United States in any way to make any additional, supplemental, continuation, or other award with respect to any approved application or portion of an approved application.

[45 FR 12246, Feb. 25, 1980; 45 FR 20096, Mar. 27, 1980; 58 FR 61030, Nov. 19, 1993]