61464 Federal Register / Vol. 70, No. 204 / Monday, October 24, 2005 / Notices 

Dated: October 14, 2005. 

Anthony M. Coelho, Jr., 

Acting Director, Office of Federal Advisory 

Committee Policy. 

[FR Doc. 05–21131 Filed 10–21–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4140–01–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Institutes of Health 

National Institute of Environmental 

Health Sciences; Notice of Closed 

Meeting 

Pursuant to section 10(d) of the 

Federal Advisory Committee Act, as 

amended (5 U.S.C. Appendix 2), notice 

is hereby given of the following 

meeting. 

The meeting will be closed to the 

public in accordance with the 

provisions set forth in sections 

552b(c)(4) and 552b(c)(6), Title 5 U.S.C., 

as amended. The grant applications and 

the discussions could disclose 

confidential trade secrets or commercial 

property such as patentable material, 

and personal information concerning 

individuals associated with the grant 

applications, the disclosure of which 

would constitute a clearly unwarranted 

invasion of personal privacy. 

Name of Committee: National Institute of 

Environmental Health Sciences Special 

Emphasis Panel Review of Institutional 

National Research Service Award (T32) and 

NRSA Short-Term Research Training (T35) 

Date: November 15, 2005 

Time: 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. 

Agenda: To review and evaluate grant 

applications. 

Place: Nat. Inst. of Environmental Health 

Sciences, Building 101, Rodbell Auditorium, 

111 T. W. Alexander Drive, Research 

Triangle Park, NC 27709, (Telephone 

Conference Call). 

Contact Person: Leroy Worth, PhD, 

Scientific Review Administrator, Scientific 

Review Branch, Division of Extramural 

Research and Training, Nat. Institute of 

Environmental Health Sciences, P.O. Box 

12233, MD EC–30/Room 3171, Research 

Triangle Park, NC 27709, 919/541–0670, 

worth@niehs.nih.gov. 

(Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance 

Program Nos. 90.115, Biometry and Risk 

Estimation-Health Risks from Environmental 

Exposures; 93.142, NIEHS Hazardous Waste 

Worker Health and Safety Training; 93.143, 

NIEHS Superfund Hazardous SubstancesBasic Research and Education; 93.894, 

Resources and Manpower Development in 

the Environmental Health Sciences; 93.113, 

Biological Response in Environmental Health 

Hazards; 93.114, Applied Toxicological 

Research and Testing; National Institutes of 

Health, HHS) 

Dated: October 14, 2005. 

Anthony M. Coelho, Jr., 

Acting Director, Office of Federal Advisory 

Committee Policy. 

[FR Doc. 05–21132 Filed 10–21–05; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4140–01–M 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

National Institutes of Health 

National Institutes of Health Town Hall 

Meeting on Ruth L. Kirschstein 

National Research Service Award 

(NRSA) Tuition, Fees and Health 

Insurance Policies 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The purpose of this notice is 

to announce that the National Institutes 

of Health (NIH) will hold a Town Hall 

meeting to hear comments and insights 

concerning possible revisions to certain 

fiscal policies that govern the Ruth L. 

Kirschstein National Research Service 

Awards (NRSA), which comprise 

institutional training grants (T32 and 

T34s) and individual fellowships (F30, 

F31, F32, F33). The meeting which is 

open to the public will focus primarily 

on the funding of educational costs such 

as tuition, fees and health insurance 

provided through institutional training 

grants. The meeting will be held 

November 30, 2005 in the Natcher 

Conference Center, Room E1/E2 on the 

NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. 

Background: NRSA programs 

currently support over 17,000 

predoctoral and postdoctoral research 

training positions mostly in the nation’s 

academic laboratories. While the budget 

for the NRSA programs grew smartly 

during the five years in which the 

overall appropriation for the NIH was 

doubled, since fiscal 2003, the last of 

the growth years, the appropriation for 

NRSA training programs has grown 

rather modestly. Given this reality, the 

NIH must re-examine aspects of its 

NRSA policies that may not be 

sustainable in a period of limited budget 

expansion. 

The largest of the NRSA programs 

funds institutional training grants that 

use the T32 mechanism to support both 

pre- and post-doctoral research training. 

Currently, the direct cost funding of 

these programs is segmented into four 

categories: stipend, tuition/fees/health 

insurance (referred to collectively as 

tuition), travel, and training related 

expenses. The funding levels for three of 

these (stipend, travel, and training 

related expenses) are stipulated and 

controlled by NIH, although each can be 

adjusted as fiscal circumstances and 

program needs evolve. The funding for 

tuition, on the other hand, is not fully 

controlled by NIH; the funding for 

tuition is governed by a formula tied to 

the amount each institution requests for 

this expense. The formula provides for 

each T32 trainee the sum of $3,000 plus 

sixty percent of the requested tuition in 

excess of $3,000. This formula is used 

to determine the tuition level provided 

via each competing grant; that level, 

once established for a given competing 

grant, is used for the subsequent noncompeting renewal awards during the 

project period. This formula has been 

employed since fiscal 1996 and has 

been modified once. 

During the five year growth period, 

the increased funding devoted to NRSA 

activities was used for meaningful, and 

long overdue, trainee stipend increases 

and for covering some of the escalating 

requests in the tuition category of 

training grants. However, in fiscal 2004 

and 2005, when there was limited 

NRSA budget growth, the requests and 

outlays for tuition continued to rise 

substantially. Barring other adjustments, 

the continuation of this trend in tuition 

growth will result in a significant 

annual decrease in the number of NRSA 

trainee positions, and to fewer programs 

supported by T32 training grants. Since 

these outcomes could have a substantial 

disruptive effect on biomedical research 

training, NIH has frozen the tuition 

expenses on competing renewals of T32 

awards in fiscal 2006. (See http:// 

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/ 

NOT-OD–05–059.html) Moreover, NIH 

training officials have decided to study 

various options for handling the funding 

of trainee tuition in the future. The goal 

of this effort is to find an approach that 

equips the agency both to adjust to 

budgetary challenges and to continue to 

provide appropriate support to 

institutions to help defray the 

educational costs of NRSA trainees. 

This town hall meeting is being held to 

gather the views of the training 

community on this issue. 

Among the options that will be 

studied are the following: 

1. The current tuition formula could 

be applied in conjunction with a ceiling; 

the funds provided would be the 

amount dictated by the currently-used 

formula or the amount dictated by the 

ceiling, whichever is less. The 

magnitude of the ceiling would be based 

on the fiscal resources available as well 

as on applicable data. For the sake of 

discussion, those offering comments 

may assume the ceiling could be in the 

range of $16,000 to $18,000. 

2. A fixed allowance could be 

provided for tuition; the same allowance 

per trainee would be provided to each