NIH EXTRAMURAL LOAN REPAYMENT PROGRAM FOR PEDIATRIC RESEARCHERS

Release Date:  September 17, 2001

NOTICE:  NOT-OD-01-063

National Institutes of Health

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announces the availability of 
educational loan repayment under the NIH Extramural Pediatric Research Loan 
Repayment Program (PR-LRP).  The PR-LRP provides for the repayment of the 
educational loan debt of qualified health professionals who agree to conduct 
pediatric research.  The Program provides for the repayment of up to $35,000 
of the principal and interest of the educational loans of extramural grantees 
or awardees for each year of obligated service.  Also, NIH covers the Federal 
taxes on the loan repayment, which are considered taxable income to program 
participants.

The purpose of the Program is the recruitment and retention of highly 
qualified health professionals as pediatric researchers.  Through this 
notice, the NIH invites qualified health professionals who contractually 
agree to engage in pediatric research as extramural grantees or awardees for 
at least two years, to apply for participation in the NIH Pediatric Research 
Loan Repayment Program.

ELIGIBILITY.  Specific eligibility criteria for the Pediatric Research LRP 
include the following:
 
o Participants must be United States citizens, nationals, or permanent 
residents;
 
o Participants must have a M.D., Ph.D., Pharm.D., D.O., D.D.S., D.M.D., 
D.P.M., D.C., N.D., or equivalent degree;
 
o Participants must be affiliated with the NIH in one of the following ways:
 
a) a recipient of postdoctoral National Research Service Award support on an 
individual postdoctoral fellowship (F32) or an institutional research 
training grant (T32).  NRSA recipients will only be eligible for loan 
repayment during the first and third year of NRSA support.  The second 
year of postdoctoral NRSA involves repayment of a service obligation 
incurred during the first year of NRSA support which eliminates the 
possibility of concurrent participation in the loan repayment program.
 
b) a recipient of support under an individual or institutional research 
development award including the following mechanisms:
K01, the Mentored Research Scientist Development Award,
K07, the Academic Clinical Scientist Development Award,
K08, the Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award,
K12, Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Program Award,
K22, the Career Transition Award with an extramural phase,
K23, the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, or
K25, the Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award.
 
c) a first-time recipient of NIH grant support as the principal 
investigator of an:
R01, a research project grant consisting of one research project,
R03, a small research grant,
R21, an exploratory/developmental grant,
U01, a cooperative agreement consisting of one research project.
 
d) a first-time director of subprojects on multicomponent center grants (P 
series grants, program project grants (P01)), or multicomponent 
cooperative agreements (U series).
 
o Participants must have qualifying educational debt in excess of 20 percent 
of their annual income or compensation, as applicable, at their expected date 
of program eligibility.  The expected date of program eligibility is the date 
by which the following conditions will be met:  (a) award date of a 
qualifying grant, and (b) the NIH executes a LRP-CR contract.  Contracts are 
not effective retroactive to the award date of the grant.
 
o Participants must engage in qualified pediatric research.  The term 
pediatric research, according to P.L. 106-310 (Title X, Section 1001), refers 
to “research that is directly related to diseases, disorders, and other 
conditions in children.”
 
o Individuals with existing service obligations to Federal, State, or other 
entities will not be considered for the Program unless and until the existing 
service obligation is discharged or deferred for the length of Program 
participation.  Further, any individual who has a Federal judgment lien 
against his/her property arising from a Federal debt is barred from receiving 
Federal funds, until the judgment is paid in full or satisfied.
 
o Applicants will not be excluded from consideration under the Program on the 
basis of age, race, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, 
disability, or other non-merit factors.

NIH will evaluate the applicant and awardee pools after the first year of 
operation to assess and measure the extent of recruitment and retention of 
qualified health professionals to pediatric research.  At that time, NIH will 
expand the pool of individuals eligible to apply for loan repayment.

INQUIRIES

Information regarding the eligibility requirements and benefits for the 
program may be obtained via the LRP website http://lrp.info.nih.gov.  
Requests for applications may be submitted via the LRP website 
http://lrp.info.nih.gov/extramural/reqApp.htm.

Application forms for this program are not currently available.  Forms are 
being developed and are subject to approval by the Office of Management and 
Budget.  It is anticipated that applications will be available by December 1, 
2001.  A receipt date for applications will be announced in a subsequent 
notice in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts.

G. Stephane Philogene, Ph.D.
Associate Director for Policy
Office of Loan Repayment and Scholarship
OIR/OD/National Institutes of Health
Website:  http://lrp.info.nih.gov
E-mail:  lrp@nih.gov

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