The Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (usually referred to as NRSA) are a family of grants provided by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) for training researchers in the behavioral sciences and health sciences.
They are a highly selective and very prestigious source of funding for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees.
The grants are awarded based on lengthy proposals submitted by applicants in which original experimental plans are described.
Only applications with very good impact scores are funded, based on budget cutoffs determined by each individual institute.
The NRSA program also provides institutions with training grants that can be used to fund one or more students.