Grant Opportunities

We are committed to providing excellent opportunities for our trainees and to keeping them informed about funding for clinical and translational research. Below is a list of resources that might be of interest. For help in developing a competitive grant application, please contact us.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs

Participants Receive Up to $35,000 Annually – Deadline is December 1, 2009

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) repays outstanding student loans through its extramural Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs). The LRPs target researchers who are or will be conducting nonprofit biomedical or behavioral research, and the application cycle opens September 1. The five extramural LRPs are Clinical Research, Pediatric Research, Health Disparities Research, Contraception and Infertility Research, and Clinical Research for Individuals from Disadvantaged Backgrounds. Applications will be accepted online until 8:00 p.m. Eastern time on December 1, 2009, at www.lrp.nih.gov.

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 an additional benefit. 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 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.

AWARDS: Each year, some 1,600 research scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in their careers through the extramural LRPs. Twenty-six percent of awards are made to individuals within one to five years of receiving their doctoral degree. More than 75 percent of awards go to individuals within 10 years of receiving their doctoral degree. Approximately 40 percent of new applications and 70 percent of renewal applications are funded.

QUESTIONS? Visit the LRP website at 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 www.lrp.nih.gov.

AHRQ Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award (K08)

(PAR-07-443)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Application receipt/submission date(s): Multiple dates; see announcement.

AHRQ Independent Scientist Award (K02)

(PAR-07-444)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Application receipt/submission date(s): Multiple dates; see announcement.

AHRQ Individual Awards for Postdoctoral Fellows (F32)

(PAR-06-409)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Application receipt/submission date(s): Multiple dates; see announcement.

NIH Director’s Awards for Creative Scientists

We would like to draw your attention to the opportunity to apply for the NIH Director's Pioneer Award and the NIH Director's New Innovator Award. Both programs support exceptionally creative scientists who work in a wide range of fields, including the behavioral and social sciences, and who propose highly innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical or behavioral research.

The programs are part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research initiative to nurture bold or even unconventional ideas that may have more than the usual degree of risk but that, if successful, will have unusually high scientific impact.

Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational Research

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund recently announced the 2009 solicitation for applications to the Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational Research program. The intent of this program is "to foster the development and productivity of established independent physician-scientists who will strengthen translational research, through their own studies as well as by mentoring physician-scientist trainees." A copy of the full announcement can be found here.

Internal deadline for preliminary nomination: June 2009 (exact time and date to be announced).

Deadline for receipt by the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation: October 1, 2009.

Career Opportunities with the Department of Health and Human Services
If you are a physician in the clinical research program or the School of Medicine and are interested in a career opportunity as a medical officer in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), or the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products (DMEP), please click here for details.