Tag Archives: NIH

Tackling Student Debt: Loan Repayment Options for Psychologists to Explore

By Megha Nagaswami, MA

You’ve worked hard to learn new skills, take classes, and gain experience for your future career in psychology. With graduation from a master’s or doctoral program in the U.S. comes new opportunities, excitement, and … worry about repaying your loans. Student loans can seem like a daunting obstacle to overcome, especially as a brand new graduate. What you may not know is that there are many federal programs designed to help support recent graduates in psychology. Keep reading to learn more about these loan repayment options!

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program benefits psychologists who work for qualified public service providers. For those who meet the employment criteria, the remaining balance of their student loan is forgiven after making 10 years of qualifying payments. Since the program began in 2007, a total of $10 billion in loans have been forgiven for 175,000 individuals. There are many eligible qualified public service providers, such as government groups and certain non-profit organizations.

Heads up! In October 2022, the Limited PSLF Waiver Opportunity expired. As of October 31, 2022, certain types of payments or loan types will no longer be counted towards PSLF repayments. However, additional changes, providing more flexibilities for PSLF eligibility, went into effect in July 2023. More information about the specific changes to PSLF policy can be found here and here.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs (LRPs)

The NIH LRP is designed to help scientists with doctoral-level degrees pursue careers in research. Through the program, psychologists can have up to $50,000 of their student loans forgiven each year for two years (up to $100,000). In exchange, you must commit to at least two years of research. You can apply to the LRP as an independent researcher or a mentored researcher.

Health Resources and Services Administration Loan Repayment Programs

HRSA has a number of loan repayment programs that include behavioral health professions such psychologists. Several of them are through the National Health Service Corps, under which health service psychologists are an eligible professional.

The links below include all of the loan repayment programs for which behavioral health professions are eligible.

Learn more about managing student debt through other APA resources:

About the author: Megha Nagaswami, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has been a member of the APAGS Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT) since 2022. Please contact Megha if you have any questions about this blog post or about the Advocacy Coordinating Team. 

How to Get NIH Funding

By Earlise C. Ward, PhD, LP (Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Nursing)

Obtaining NIH grants has become even more competitive but there’s good news for early career researchers. In her Rock Talk blog, Dr. Sally Rockey, NIH’s Deputy Director for Extramural Research, wrote:

 NIH has made a concerted effort to make sure that faculty members in their early careers have a fair chance when they compete against more established investigators.

NIH recently adopted the Early Stage Investigator policy. That policy specifies that New Investigators within ten years of completing their terminal research degree or within ten years of completing their medical residency will be designated Early Stage Investigators (ESIs).

Traditional NIH research grant (R01s) applications from ESIs are identified and the career stage of the applicant will be considered at the time of review and award.

Here are some tips to help you win funding from NIH.

 Tips for Success: 

  1. Become familiar with relevant NIH Institutes based on your research interest. For example, if you are doing mental health research, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) might be of interest to you. If you are doing aging research, National Institute of Aging (NIA) might be of interest to you. If you are doing health disparities research, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) might be of interest to you.
  2. Sign up for the NIH Guide ListServe. The Guide is emailed once a week, and contains Table of Contents with links to PAs, Notices, and RFAs.
  3. Review recently funded grants (RePORTER).
  4. Once you have identified an institute of interest, contact the program officer. It is helpful to get to know your program officer. You can also write a concept paper with your specific aims and ask your program officer to review and provide feedback as to whether your research falls within a priority area of the institute.
  5. When you decide to submit an NIH application, have a senior colleague review your research proposal. Also set up a mock review. If you have funding it is worth paying a consultant to review your grant.
  6. If you meet the criteria for an Early Stage Investigator (ESI), indicate your ESI status on your NIH grant application.

Given the competitiveness of securing NIH grant funding and the limited federal funding available, it is important to explore other options for funding. In other words, diversify your funding portfolio. I encourage you to explore funding from private organizations including Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and other organizations relevant to your areas of research interest.

Winning grants for your research takes a lot of time. Plan ahead to make sure you have enough time to write the proposal, have it reviewed by colleagues, revise it and submit it on time. Once your grant is successfully submitted, be sure to take some time to celebrate your submission, as submission is a milestone. When you receive funding, celebrate again!

I look forward to hearing about other researchers’ tips for success.

Going to the APA Convention in Toronto (August 6-9, 2015)? Don’t miss the following opportunity!

Roundtable Discussion: An Insider’s Guide to NIH Research and Training Opportunities — Talk with NIH Staff

Date:                    Saturday, August 8, 10:00 a.m. -10:50 a.m.

Location:             Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Ontario Room

Sponsors:            APA Women’s Programs Office (WPO), APA Committee on Women in Psychology

Each year during the APA Convention, the WPO hosts an open meeting, An Insider’s Guide to NIH Research and Training Opportunities: Talk with NIH Staff, where individuals can talk to NIH program staff one-on-one. In an informal setting, staff from several NIH agencies will provide advice about funding and training opportunities.

Individuals can get tips on topics such as finding the right grant match for your needs, identifying research priorities, using the NIH Reporter grants information database, and asking the right questions of NIH staff, as well as learning more about the diversity supplement program, fellowship programs, research career development programs, the Extramural Associates Program for faculty at minority, women and small colleges, meeting grants and summer research programs, along with a range of other grant opportunities.