NIH Loan Repayment Programs - Cheat Sheet

Overview

  • The NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs) are a set of programs established by Congress and designed to recruit and retain highly qualified health professionals into biomedical or biobehavioral research careers.
  • The LRPs counteract that financial pressure by repaying up to $35,000 annually of a researcher's qualified educational debt in return for a commitment to engage in NIH mission-relevant research.
  • There are eight LRPs, five for researchers not employed by NIH (Extramural) and three for researchers employed by NIH (Intramural).
  • Research funding from NIH is not required to participate in the Extramural LRPs, and Extramural and Intramural LRP awardees may apply for subsequent, competitive renewal awards as long as they meet Program eligibility.

Applicants / Referees / Business Officials:

  • The 3 roles listed above need NIH Commons IDs. Contact your RPM to have one set up for you if you don’t already have one.
  • Please review the attached power point presentation for an overview of the application process. It includes screenshots and instructions for how to navigate the LRP Application System Portal.

Applicants:

  • Identify the LRP program to which you wish to apply. Click here to view all programs: Click on “view more” for more information.
  • Click on the “LRP Application System Portal Login” and log in with your Commons ID and password to begin the application process.
  • Refer to the attached slides for more information.

Referee/Recommender:

  • Go here:
  • Click the log in button
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Commons Login.
  • Log in with your NIH Commons ID and Password.
  • Refer to slides 39-41for more information.

Research Supervisors/Mentor:

  • Go here:
  • Click the Extramural Research/Service Verification button.
  • Log in with your email address and password. If you don’t know your password, click on “Forgot password.”
  • Refer to slides 42 – 44 for more information.

Institutional Business Official (IBO)

  • Go here:
  • Click the log in button
  • Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Commons Login.
  • Log in with your NIH Commons ID and Password.
  • Refer to slides 45– 47 for more information.

Application Process and Interactive Map:

FAQs