The nation's changing Needs for Biomedical and Behavioral Scientists.

When Congress established the National Institutes of Health’s principal program for training new scientists in 1974, it stipulated that the numbers and kinds of investigators prepared through this avenue be consistent with the nation’s needs for research personnel. Since then, the size and focus of the National Research Service Awards—or the NRSA program, as these training grants and fellowship awards to universities and their students are collectively known—have been guided by regular assessments of the health research workforce conducted by committees convened by the National Research Council. During the first decade of the NRSA program, Congress expanded the program’s scope to include training in health services and primary care research. Since then, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in awarding research training grants and fellowships, and studies of the research workforce have examined the supplies of investigators in these fields as well.