2012 NIH Loan Repayment Programs

Application Deadline: November 15, 2011

The 2012 application cycle for the National Institutes of Health's Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) is now open, so start your application online at http://www.lrp.nih.gov. The LRPs repay the outstanding student loans of researchers who are or will be conducting nonprofit biomedical or behavioral research. Opportunities are available in five research areas - clinical, pediatric, health disparities, contraception and infertility and clinical research for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. Applications will be accepted until 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on November 15, 2011.

BENEFITS: New LRP contracts are awarded for a two-year period and repay up to $35,000 of qualified educational debt annually. Tax offsets also are provided as additional benefits. Participants may apply for competitive renewals, which are issued for one or two years. Undergraduate, graduate, medical school, and other health professional school loans qualify for repayment. An NIH grant or other NIH funding is not required to apply for or participate in the LRPs.

ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must possess a doctoral-level degree (with the exception of 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 domestic nonprofit, university or government entity; and have qualified educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent of their institutional base salary.

AWARDS: Each year, nearly 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in their careers through the extramural LRPs. Approximately 40 percent of new applications and 70 percent of renewal applications are funded.

QUESTIONS? Visit the LRP website at http://www.lrp.nih.gov for more information and to access the online application. For additional assistance, call or e-mail the LRP Information Center at (866) 849-4047 or lrp@nih.gov.