Title 42, The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-110

§19064 Biological Research Collections

Title 42 › CHAPTER 163 — RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, COMPETITION, AND INNOVATION › SUBCHAPTER III — NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE › Part E — Fundamental Research › § 19064

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Director must keep funding databases, tools, and other work that protect and improve physical and digital biological research collections. This support must also make collections easier to use for research and education, build curatorial skills, and move important collections to museums or universities. Working with other federal research agencies, the Director will require funded projects that collect specimens to include a plan for adding and keeping specimens and related data in an established collection. The Director will also give competitive grants to colleges or non‑profits to help coordinate sharing, training, and to set up an Action Center for Biological Collections.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §19064

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

The Director shall continue to support databases, tools, methods, and other activities that secure and improve existing physical and digital biological research collections, improve the accessibility of collections and collection-related data for research and educational purposes, develop capacity for curation and collection management, and to transfer ownership of collections that are significant to the biological research community, including to museums and universities.

(b)Specimen management plan

In consultation with other relevant Federal research agencies, and as the Director determines is appropriate, the Director shall require that proposals submitted to the Foundation for funding for research that involves collecting or generating specimens include, as part of the data management plan under section 19053 of this title, a description of how the specimens and associated data will be accessioned into and maintained in an established biological collection.

(c)Action Center for Biological Collections

In coordination with other relevant Federal research agencies, as appropriate, the Director shall make awards on a competitive basis to institutions of higher education or non-profit organizations (or consortia of such institutions or organizations) to facilitate coordination and data sharing among communities of practice for research, education, workforce training, evaluation, and business model development, including by establishing an Action Center for Biological Collections.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 19064

Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110