Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students | HRSA 25 076

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 25 076

The Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) program is a federal grant opportunity from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) designed to strengthen diversity across the health professions and nursing workforce. It does this by awarding funds to eligible schools, which then use those funds to provide scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds who demonstrate financial need. A central emphasis of the program is expanding opportunity for students who have historically faced barriers to entering health careers, including students who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups. Importantly, the money is awarded to institutions rather than directly to students, and participating schools are responsible for making scholarship awards to eligible students in line with program rules.

Eligible applicants are accredited education programs in a wide range of health disciplines. This includes schools of medicine, osteopathic medicine, dentistry, nursing (as defined in section 801), pharmacy, physical therapy, podiatric medicine, optometry, veterinary medicine, public health, chiropractic, and allied health. The opportunity also extends to schools offering graduate programs in behavioral and mental health practice, as well as entities that provide training programs for physician assistants. Because eligibility can depend on specific program types within a discipline, applicants are expected to consult the subdiscipline eligibility list to confirm that their particular program or department qualifies.

The program is open to certain types of domestic organizations, assuming they meet the underlying accreditation and program eligibility requirements. Eligible organization types include public health professions schools, non-profit private health professions schools, non-profit health professions schools with 501(c)(3) IRS status, and non-profit health professions schools with other IRS statuses besides 501(c)(3). It also allows applications from for-profit nursing schools and for-profit physician assistant schools, as well as Native American tribal governments and Native American tribal organizations. For SDS purposes, "domestic" includes not only the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, but also U.S. territories and freely associated states listed in the notice: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. Individuals are explicitly not eligible to apply under this funding notice, meaning students cannot apply directly for SDS funds; they would instead seek scholarships through an institution that receives an SDS award.

From the opportunity details provided, this is a discretionary grant program (Funding Opportunity Number HRSA 25-076) under CFDA 93.925, categorized within the health funding activity area. HRSA anticipates making about 85 awards under this competition. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0, which usually signals that the maximum award amount is not specified in the summary data and applicants should rely on the full Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for funding ranges, budgeting limits, and any formulas used to determine award size. The application closing date is February 19, 2025, and the opportunity record indicates it was created on November 21, 2024. Overall, the intent is straightforward: fund eligible health professions schools so they can reduce financial barriers for disadvantaged students and, over time, broaden representation and equity in the nation’s health workforce.

• The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.925.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-11-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-02-19. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 85 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for HRSA 25 076

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