Rural Residency Planning and Development Technical Assistance (RRPD-TA) Program | HRSA 25 008

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 25 008

The Rural Residency Planning and Development Technical Assistance (RRPD-TA) Program (HRSA 25-008) is a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) cooperative agreement designed to strengthen the rural physician workforce by helping organizations successfully create and sustain rural physician residency programs. It sits alongside HRSA's broader Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) initiative, which has two connected parts: (1) the RRPD grants program that provides direct funding to organizations building new rural residency programs, and (2) this RRPD-TA program, which funds one awardee to deliver hands-on technical assistance to those organizations so their programs can actually get launched, accredited, and maintained over time. The central goal is practical: expand access to health care in rural communities by increasing the number of physicians trained in rural settings and more likely to practice there long term.

This opportunity funds technical assistance rather than new residency slots directly. The organization receiving the cooperative agreement is expected to provide structured support, tools, and resources to groups that are developing rural residency programs, including RRPD grant recipients and also applicants or other stakeholders working toward rural residency development. The work is meant to address the real barriers that commonly slow or derail rural residency efforts, such as meeting accreditation expectations, building training site capacity, structuring rural rotations, arranging faculty and preceptors, handling finances and sustainability, navigating partnerships between urban sponsoring institutions and rural sites, and solving operational challenges tied to rural settings. Because the award instrument is a cooperative agreement, HRSA typically has substantial involvement in guiding and collaborating on the technical assistance approach, expectations, and deliverables compared to a standard grant.

For purposes of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), "rural residency programs" are defined in a specific way. They must be accredited physician residency programs, they must train residents in rural training sites for more than 50 percent of the total residency time, and they must be intentionally oriented toward producing physicians who will practice in rural communities. The NOFO explicitly includes programs aligned with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Rural Track Program (RTP) designation. That means the TA scope may cover both brand-new rural track programs seeking accreditation as well as existing programs pursuing a permanent complement increase to train additional residents at new rural training sites. In other words, the technical assistance is meant to support both startup and expansion pathways, so long as they fit the rural-majority training model and rural workforce intent.

Eligibility is broad across domestic entities, reflecting the many different organizations that can serve as conveners or technical assistance hubs for rural graduate medical education development. Eligible applicants include public and private institutions of higher education, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status, for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and units of government at the state, county, city/township, and special district level. Independent school districts are also eligible, as are Native American tribal governments and Native American tribal organizations. "Domestic" is defined expansively to include the 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the freely associated states (Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau). Individuals are not eligible to apply under this NOFO.

Key funding details indicate this is a single-award technical assistance center-style project. HRSA expects to make 1 award, with an award ceiling of $1,250,000. The opportunity category is discretionary, the funding activity category is health, and the CFDA number listed is 93.155. The application closing date is March 18, 2025, and the opportunity was created on January 17, 2025. The net takeaway is that HRSA is looking for one capable organization to serve as the national technical assistance provider to help rural residency developers move from concept to accredited, sustainable training programs that keep physicians in rural practice.

• The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Rural Residency Planning and Development Technical Assistance (RRPD-TA) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.155.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-01-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-03-18. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for HRSA 25 008

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