Institutional Allowance
Institutional Allowance for National Research and Science Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowships
Effective 9/1/2016
The Kirschstein-NRSA program helps ensure that a diverse pool of highly trained scientists is available in adequate numbers and in appropriate research areas to carry out the nation's biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research agenda. NRSA fellowships are awarded as a result of national competition for research training in specified health-related areas.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards an institutional allowance to help support the costs of training for the fellowship. The institutional allowance is a fixed amount. Except for fellows at federal training sites, consistent with NIH policy governing the type of expenditures appropriate for the institutional allowance, the sponsoring institution authorizes the expenditure of the institutional allowance on behalf of the fellow according to the institution's policy. The institution is entitled to expend up to the full institutional allowance upon official activation of the award. However, if an individual fellow is not in a training status for more than 6 months of the award year, only one-half of that year's institutional allowance may be charged to the grant.
The fellow is expected to expend the institutional allowance timely in each budget year. To ensure that the expenses are in compliance with the federal cost principles, any unspent funds from the institutional allowance on fellowship awards will be restricted and removed from the billing limit. The unspent amount cannot be carried over to the next year or transferred to a non-sponsored fund. Please communicate this with the fellow to ensure that the institutional allowance is expended timely.