The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced the availability of funding to help eligible veterinarians offset a significant portion of the 
debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medicine degrees in return for their service in certain high-priority veterinary shortage situations. Funding is made through NIFA’s Veterinary Medical Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP), authorized by the National Veterinary Medical Services Act.
The VLMRP supports NIFA’s Animal Systems portfolio by facilitating professional workforce development in critical agricultural sectors related to animal health and well-being. The program contains three general categories of participation: Mitigation of private practice shortage situations, mitigation of public veterinary practice and specialty veterinary discipline shortage situations, and service in animal health emergencies.
New applications and renewals are accepted. NIFA reviews all proposals accepted in its competitive grant programs through an external peer review process. Specific details on panel meetings, review formats, and evaluation criteria varies among programs.
There is $5.7 million in available funding to support VLMRP. The application deadline is Mar. 16, 2018. For more information, see the VLMRP Request for Applications web page.
NIFA’s mission is to invest in and advance agricultural research, education, and extension to solve societal challenges. NIFA’s investments in transformative science directly support the long-term prosperity and global preeminence of U.S. agriculture. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural sciences, visit https://www.nifa.usda.gov/Impacts, sign up for email updates, or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAImpacts.