The Director, pursuant to the general authority of the Director, may make awards of grants to public or private entities to pay all or part of the costs of planning, establishing, improving, and providing basic operating support to multicenter networks of clinical sites that will collaborate to design clinical rehabilitation intervention protocols and measures of outcomes on one or more forms of paralysis that result from central nervous system trauma, disorders, or stroke, or any combination of such conditions.

A multicenter network of clinical sites funded through this section may—

focus on areas of key scientific concern, including—

(A) improving functional mobility;

(B) promoting behavioral adaptation to functional losses, especially to prevent secondary complications;

(C) assessing the efficacy and outcomes of medical rehabilitation therapies and practices and assisting technologies;

(D) developing improved assistive technology to improve function and independence; and

(E) understanding whole body system responses to physical impairments, disabilities, and societal and functional limitations; and

(2) replicate the findings of network members or other researchers for scientific and translation purposes.

The Director may, as appropriate, provide for the coordination of information among networks funded through this section and ensure regular communication among members of the networks, and may require the periodic preparation of reports on the activities of the networks and submission of reports to the Director.

(Pub. L. 111–11, title XIV, § 14201, Mar. 30, 2009, 123 Stat. 1453.)