NVIT Short Term Bond Fund
Summary Prospectus May 1, 2010

Class Y  /  Class I  /  Class II

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s Prospectus, which contains information about the Fund and its risks. This Summary Prospectus is intended for use in connection with variable insurance contracts, and is not intended for use by other investors. The Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2010, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. For free paper or electronic copies of the Fund’s Prospectus and other information about the Fund, go to www.nationwide.com/mutualfundsnvit, email a request to web_help@nationwide.com or call 800-848-0920, or ask any variable insurance contract provider who offers shares of the Fund as an underlying investment option in its products.

Objective

The Fund seeks to provide a high level of current income while preserving capital and minimizing fluctuations in share value.

Fees and Expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay when buying and holding shares of the Fund. Sales charges and other expenses that may be imposed by variable insurance contracts are not included. See the variable insurance contract prospectus.

	Class Y	Class I	Class II
	Shares	Shares	Shares
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)	None	None	None
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Management Fees	0.35%	0.35%	0.35%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees	N/A	N/A	0.25%
Other Expenses1	0.12%	0.27%	0.27%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses	0.47%	0.62%	0.87%

1  The Board of Trustees of Nationwide Variable Insurance Trust (the “Trust”) has approved a new methodology for the allocation of certain Fund expenses, effective May 1, 2010, including those relating to the provision of administration and transfer agency services, as reflected in a new Joint Fund Administration and Transfer Agency Agreement. Accordingly, “Other Expenses” have been restated to reflect the new expense allocation methodology.

NSP-STB 5/10

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Example

This Example is intended to help you to compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example, however, does not include charges that are imposed by variable insurance contracts. If these charges were reflected, the expenses listed below would be higher.

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those time periods. It assumes a 5% return each year and no change in expenses. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

	1 Year		3 Years		5 Years		10 Years
Class Y shares	$	48	$	151	$	263	$	591
Class I shares		63		199		346		774
Class II shares		89		278		482		1,073

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 101.24% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in a wide variety of investment-grade fixed-income securities, such as corporate bonds, U.S. government securities, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities and commercial paper. These securities may pay interest on either a fixed-rate or a variable-rate basis. Up to 10% of the Fund’s net assets also may be invested in high-yield bonds (commonly known as “junk bonds”). In choosing securities, the subadviser attempts to identify securities that, in its opinion, offer the best combination of yield, maturity and relative price performance, based on anticipated changes in interest rates and in the price relationships among various types of fixed-income securities. The subadviser may sell securities in order to buy others that it believes will better serve the objectives of the Fund. The Fund is managed so that its average portfolio duration generally will not exceed three years. The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of portfolio securities.

Principal Risks

The Fund cannot guarantee that it will achieve its investment objective.

As with any fund, the value of the Fund’s investments—and therefore, the value of Fund shares—may fluctuate. These changes may occur because of:

Interest rate risk – generally, when interest rates go up, the value of fixed-income securities goes down.

Credit risk – a bond issuer may be unable to pay the interest or principal when due. This risk is particularly high for high-yield bonds.

Liquidity risk – is the risk that a security cannot be sold, or cannot be sold quickly, at an acceptable price.

Prepayment and call risk – certain bonds will be paid off by the issuer more quickly than anticipated. If this happens, the Fund may be required to invest the proceeds in securities with lower yields.

Extension risk – when interest rates rise, certain bond obligations will be paid off by the issuer more slowly than anticipated. This can cause the market value of the security to fall because the market may view its interest rate as too low for a longer-term investment.

Mortgage- and asset-backed securities risks – through its investments in mortgage-backed securities, the fund may have some exposure to subprime loans, as well as to the mortgage and credit markets generally. Subprime loans, which are loans made to borrowers with weakened credit histories, have had in many cases higher default rates than loans that meet government underwriting requirements. The credit quality of most asset-backed securities depends primarily on the credit quality of the assets underlying such securities, how well the entity issuing the security is insulated from the credit risk of the originator or any other affiliated entities, and the amount and quality of any credit enhancement of the securities.

High-yield bonds risk – investing in high-yield bonds and other lower-rated bonds will subject the Fund to substantial risk of loss.

Portfolio turnover risk – a higher portfolio turnover rate increases transaction costs and as a result may adversely impact the Fund’s performance and may increase share price volatility.

If the value of the Fund’s investments goes down, you may lose money.

Performance

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows the volatility or variability of the Fund’s annual total returns over time and shows that Fund performance can change from year to year. The table shows the Fund’s average annual total returns for certain time periods compared to the returns of a comparable broad-based securities index. Remember, however, that past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. The returns shown in the bar chart and table do not include charges that will be imposed by variable insurance contracts. If these amounts were reflected, returns would be less than those shown.

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Annual Total Returns – Class Y Shares

(Year Ended December 31,)

Best Quarter:  2.89% – 2^nd qtr. of 2009

Worst Quarter:  0.52% – 4^th qtr. of 2009

Average Annual Total Returns

(For Periods Ended December 31, 2009)

				Since Inception
	1 Year			(March 25, 2008)
Class Y shares		7.53	%	3.99%
Class I shares		7.39	%	3.91%
Class II shares		7.11	%	3.56%
BofA Merrill Lynch 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Index, formerly Merrill Lynch 1-3 Year U.S. Treasury Index (reflects no deduction for fees or expenses)		0.78	%	2.46% (Since March 31, 2008)

Portfolio Management

Investment Adviser

Nationwide Fund Advisors

Subadviser

Nationwide Asset Management, LLC (“NWAM”)

Portfolio Managers

Portfolio Manager	Title	Length of Service
Joel S. Buck	Senior Investment Professional, NWAM	Since August 1998
Gary R. Davis, CFA	Senior Investment Professional, NWAM	Since May 1998
Gary R. Hunt, CFA	Senior Investment Professional, NWAM	Since September 1992

Tax Information

The dividends and distributions paid by the Fund to the insurance company separate accounts will consist primarily of ordinary income. Because shares of the Fund must be purchased through separate accounts used to fund variable life and variable annuity insurance contracts, such dividends and distributions will be exempt from current taxation by contract holders if left to accumulate within a separate account. Consult the variable insurance contract prospectus for additional tax information.

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

This Fund is only offered as an underlying investment option for variable insurance contracts. The Fund and its related companies may make payments to the sponsoring insurance companies (or its affiliates) for distribution and/or other services, and to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries that distribute the variable insurance contracts. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the insurance companies to include the Fund as an underlying investment option in the variable insurance contracts, and by influencing the broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries to distribute variable insurance contracts that include the Fund as an underlying investment option over other variable insurance contracts or to otherwise recommend the selection of the Fund as an underlying investment option by contract owners instead of other funds that may also be available investment options. The prospectus (or other offering document) for your variable insurance contract may contain additional information about these payments.

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