NIH Accepting Applications for Extramural Loan Repayment Programs

September 12, 2008 – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that it is currently accepting applications for its five extramural Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) in Clinical Research, Pediatric Research, Health Disparities Research, Contraception and Infertility Research, and Clinical Research for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds.

The LRPs repay up to $35,000 of educational loan debt annually for individuals who commit to conducting at least two years of qualified biomedical or behavioral research at a nonprofit institution of their choice.  To qualify for the LRPs, applicants must possess a doctoral-level degree, devote at least 20 hours per week to research funded by a domestic nonprofit organization or federal, state, or local government entity, have educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent of their institutional base salary, and be a United States citizen, national, or permanent resident.

NIH estimates that nearly 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in the extramural LRPs and that on average, approximately 40 percent of all new LRP applications are funded.

Applications are currently being accepted through December 1, 2008.  Additional information and application instructions may be found on the NIH Loan Repayment Programs Web site.