VMLRP News and Timeline

VMLRP News

OCTOBER 2024: Veterinary Services Shortage Situation Nominations Deadline

State Animal Health Officials (SAHO) may identify the need for food supply veterinarians in specific areas within their state. SAHOs nominate these areas to be designated as veterinary shortage situations for recruiting or retaining a qualified veterinarian to serve an area where there is a shortage of existing services or a great risk of losing an established food animal veterinarian. These nominations support two United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) competitive programs:

•    Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP)
•    Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP)

The goal of the VMLRP is to encourage food animal veterinarians to serve in serious veterinary shortage situations in exchange for veterinary education loan repayment assistance. The goals of the VSGP are to fund accredited schools and organizations in education, extension, and training (EET) for food animal veterinary medicine and for rural practice enhancement (RPE) for veterinary clinics that provide services in veterinary shortage situations. A short-term objective for both programs is to match the specific area needs with the knowledge, skills, abilities, experiences, goals, and aspirations of applicants. The long-term objective of the programs is to provide funds to veterinarians and veterinary clinics to sustain clinical practice in shortage situation areas.

The deadline for SAHOs to submit veterinary shortage situation nominations is Tuesday, November 12, 2024. These nominations will be for the Fiscal Year 2025 application cycle for both VMLRP and VSGP. Nominations should be emailed to VMLRP.applications@usda.gov by the deadline.

VMLRP Timeline

Dates listed below are subject to change in relation to unforeseen circumstances or administrative changes.