Start preparing now for the Fiscal Year 2009 NIH Extramural Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs), opening September 1 and closing December 1, as announced recently in NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-08-083. Applicants can begin preparing their applications by using the new LRP Application Guide available on the LRP Web site. Individuals are not required to have an NIH grant in order to apply for or participate in the LRPs.
Each year, some 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in their careers through the extramural Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs). The purpose of the LRPs is to encourage highly qualified scientific investigators to pursue careers in clinical, pediatric, health disparities, and contraception and infertility research. Participants receive loan repayment and tax benefits, which serve as one means of retaining them in the scientific workforce and expanding the nation’s pool of researchers. New LRP contracts are awarded for a two-year period and repay up to $35,000 of qualified educational debt annually. Participants may apply for competing renewals, which are issued for one or two years. Undergraduate, graduate, medical school, and other health professional school loans qualify for repayment.
This is a program that works. Physician scientists who receive LRP awards are more likely to be retained in the research workforce than those who do not receive awards. Moreover, these individuals are significantly more likely to apply for subsequent NIH research grants than non-LRP-funded physician scientists.
The application cycle for the LRPs will open September 1, and applications must be completed online at www.lrp.nih.gov prior to the December 1 deadline. Applicants must possess a doctoral-level degree (except for the Contraception and Infertility Research LRP); be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident; devote 20 hours or more per week to conducting qualified research funded by a university, nonprofit organization, or federal, state, or local government entity; and have qualified educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent of their institutional base salary.
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