Grants.gov

GL to update purpose after the NOFO is finalized. Develop plans to establish or enhance BME departments, interdisciplinary technology centers, and/or academic programs which may include: Support research and educational opportunities for trainees in bioengineering and technology development (Undergrad and/or Graduate) Plans for core technology facilities, maker space, data science centers Faculty recruitment, collaborative research programs, training, and partnerships Building curriculum and course development Innovation and entrepreneurship programs Plans for sustainability of programs

The purpose of the RRTCs, which are funded through the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects and Centers Program, is to achieve the goals of, and improve the effectiveness of, services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act through well-designed research, training, technical assistance, and dissemination activities in important topical areas as specified by NIDILRR. These activities are designed to benefit people with disabilities, family members, rehabilitation service providers, policymakers and other research stakeholders. The purpose of this particular RRTC is to conduct research, training, technical assistance, and related activities to contribute to improved employment outcomes among youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions. NIDILRR plans to make one grant under this opportunity. The grant will have a 60-month project period, with five 12-month budget periods.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) anticipates soliciting applications for Behavioral Interventions Scholars awards to support dissertation research by advanced graduate students who are using approaches grounded in behavioral science or behavioral economics to examine research questions of relevance to social services programs and policies. These awards are meant to build capacity in the research field to apply a behavioral science or behavioral economics lens to issues facing families with low incomes in the United States, and to foster faculty mentorship of high-quality doctoral students. Applicants are required to demonstrate how their research is grounded in behavioral economics/behavioral science and the applicability of their research to practices or policies serving children, adults, and families with low incomes, especially those that seek to improve their well-being. For information about OPRE, please go to https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre. For information about related work ongoing within OPRE, please go to https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/behavioral-interventions-to-advance-self-s… .gov System Alert - Entity Validation Delays:All applicants must be registered at SAM.gov and establish a Unique Entity Identifier. Due to high demand, SAM.gov is experiencing a considerable delay in processing entity legal business name and address validation tickets. As needed, please start the process early to avoid interruptions in application submissions. You can find SAM resources related to this process here - https://www.fsd.gov/gsafsd_sp?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0058…. Interested in this announcement? Create an account at Grants.gov and subscribe to this forecast to receive notifications of updates and publication.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Administration for Native Americans (ANA) announces the availability of Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funds for the Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS) program.This program is focused on community-driven projects designed to grow local economies, strengthen Native American families, including the preservation of Native American cultures, and decrease the high rate of current challenges caused by the lack of community-based businesses, and social and economic infrastructure in Native American communities. Native American communities include American Indian tribes (federally-recognized and non-federally recognized), Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives, and Native American Pacific Islanders.

**A modification to this NOFO was made on April 4, 2024. There are no content changes to application or program requirements. The funding opportunity number was changed from HHS-2024-ACF-ACYF-CW-0056 to HHS-2024-ACF-ACYF-CT-0056. There were changes made in Section I, Statutory Authority; and Section II, Expected Number of Awards and Estimated Total Funding. In Section III, Eligibility was changed to exclude for-profit organizations and small businesses. American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children are nearly 3 times more likely to enter foster care, compared to non-Native children. These four year grants are intended to generate evidence for how best to effectively implement child welfare practices and ongoing active efforts to maintain AI/AN families by funding state and tribal partnerships to jointly design and operate Indian child welfare best practice implementation demonstration sites. The evidence generated and lessons learned through this effort are intended to contribute to implementation efforts nationally to help maintain and preserve AI/AN families and allow their children to remain connected to their communities and cultures. The purpose of this notice of funding opportunity is to create and implement intergovernmental partnership models to improve implementation of child welfare best practices that are culturally appropriate for federally recognized AI/AN children to prevent maltreatment, removal from families and communities, and improve safety, permanency, and well-being. Recipients will serve as demonstration sites to design and implement projects to effectively implement culturally appropriate best practices in Indian child welfare, including measuring improvements in child welfare practice, Indian child welfare codes, legal and judicial processes, case monitoring, case planning, data collection, in-home family preservation services, infrastructure, and systems change. Partnerships must include the state Court Improvement Program, the state child welfare agency, and one or more tribal governments or tribal consortia including corresponding tribal court(s). The "Tribal government" partner(s) may be tribal child welfare agencies where appropriate under tribal law or custom.Effective culturally appropriate best practices for implementation require a high degree of collaboration between state and tribal courts and Indian child welfare agencies. Thus, both states and tribes must identify, build, and enhance necessary capacities. State/tribal collaborations will work together to craft solutions for longstanding challenges to providing effective best practices in Indian child welfare in ways that work best for their communities. This funding opportunity is intended to encourage state and tribal governments to work together to find creative, rational ways to meet the needs of AI/AN families with culturally appropriate best practices in Indian child welfare, with active efforts to retain or reunite Indian children with family as the “gold standard” for best Indian child welfare practice. The award also provides an important opportunity for states and tribes to build or strengthen relationships of trust by working together toward common family preservation goals. As part of the project, recipients may also consider the role of civil legal services in implementation efforts. Assessment of the success and/or need for legal representation to parties in Indian child welfare cases may be included in project work, as may provision of direct civil legal services, to the extent that such legal services are an identified part of a pilot or practice model to be tested.For purposes of this funding opportunity, "Tribal courts" are defined consistent with the Bureau of Indian Affairs regulations as "a court with jurisdiction over child custody proceedings and which is either a Court of Indian Offenses, a court established and operated under the code or custom of an Indian tribe, or any other administrative body of a tribe which is vested with authority over child custody proceedings.

The purpose of the RRTCs, which are funded through the Disability and Rehabilitation Research Projects and Centers Program, is to achieve the goals of, and improve the effectiveness of, services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act through well-designed research, training, technical assistance, and dissemination activities in important topical areas as specified by NIDILRR. These activities are designed to benefit people with disabilities, family members, rehabilitation service providers, policymakers and other research stakeholders. The purpose of this particular RRTC is to conduct research, training, technical assistance, and related activities to contribute to improved employment outcomes among transition-age youth with disabilities. NIDILRR plans to make one grant under this opportunity. The grant will have a 60-month project period, with five 12-month budget periods.

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is soliciting applications for the Family Self-Sufficiency Demonstration Development (FSSDD) Phase 2 Awards (note that all instances of the term “continuation” that appear throughout the NOFO refer to Phase 2 of the program). Entities who were awarded the initial award (HHS-2021-ACF-OPRE-PE-1944) are eligible to apply for this current cooperative agreement.During the initial award, recipients conducted foundational evidence capacity-building activities relevant to their interventions. During this continuation award, recipients will continue building on the progress they made during the initial award. The FSSDD Phase 2 award has two main purposes. The first purpose is to support recipients in building their internal evidence capacity to strengthen evidence-informed program services and improve outcomes for the families they serve. The second purpose is for recipients to contribute to the evidence on interventions serving families with children who are eligible for or at risk of becoming eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Recipients will also develop clear plans for sustaining an evidence-driven organizational culture beyond the funding period of the award and will share project learnings and implications with appropriate research, policy, and practice audiences. Recipients are required to work with a federally funded, third-party technical assistance provider throughout the entirety of the award.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announces funding for the Refugee Career Pathways (RCP) program. Through the RCP program, ORR will provide funding to enable refugees and other eligible populations to achieve self-sufficiency by obtaining the means to secure professional or skilled employment drawing upon previously acquired knowledge, skills, and experience. Under the RCP program, the primary focus is to assist participants in learning about career pathways and developing individualized plans to gain employment and advance within their chosen career field. Allowable activities will include case management, training and technical assistance, specialized English language training, and mentoring. In addition, eligible refugee participants may receive federal financial assistance for costs related to the establishment or re-establishment of credentials, such as obtaining educational credits or enrollment in required certification programs. ORR is requiring that RCP programs have a partnership with at least one educational institution (i.e., university, college, community college, or other institution with expertise in career and technical education) to facilitate career opportunities in ways that supplement, rather than supplant, existing services. RCP programs implemented by an educational institution must collaborate with at least one refugee-focused entity (i.e., resettlement office and/or other organization with programming specifically aimed at refugees).

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announces funding under the Refugee Family Child Care Microenterprise Development Project (RFCCMED). Through the RFCCMED program, ORR will fund successful applicants to provide refugee participants with training and technical assistance in professional child care, microenterprise development, and financial literacy; assist refugee participants in navigating the child care licensing process; and provide direct financial assistance as needed to enable participants to prepare their homes for child care business operation. Successful applicants will demonstrate internal capacity and partnerships to provide program services. The three main objectives of RFCCMED are to 1) help refugees to achieve economic self-sufficiency by establishing licensed family child care (FCC) businesses; 2) help refugee families gain access to licensed FCC businesses which will meet the early care and developmental needs of refugee children; and 3) assist refugees in learning how to navigate mainstream child care services.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS) will solicit applications to award approximately $15.2 million in Community Economic Development (CED) discretionary award funds to Community Development Corporations (CDC) for well-planned, financially viable, and innovative projects to enhance job creation and business development for individuals with low income. CED awards will be made as part of a broader strategy to address objectives such as decreasing dependency on federal programs, chronic unemployment, and community deterioration in urban and rural areas. CED projects are expected to actively recruit individuals with low income to fill the positions created by CED-funded development activities, to assist those individuals in successfully maintaining employment, and to ensure that the businesses and jobs created remain viable for at least one year after the award project period. CED projects can be non-construction or construction projects, however, short-term construction jobs associated with preparing for business startup or expansion are not counted when determining the number of jobs created under the CED program as those jobs are temporary in nature. OCS encourages applicants to target rural and underserved areas in states with current projects.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) seeks applications for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Data Collaborative Equity Analysis Awards. Awards are intended to support state, territory, or county TANF agencies in conducting equity-focused analyses of state TANF and other human services data. Equity-focused analyses may examine the fair, just, and impartial treatment of individuals under the management and practices of the TANF program. For example, analyses may assess disparities or disproportionalities across different social groups with respect to benefit levels, referral to specific programs, or sanctioning rates. During the 36-month project period, award recipients will participate in intensive training and technical assistance provided by an ACF-funded contractor as part of the TANF Data Collaborative 2.0 (see description below). The technical assistance will build the capacity of agencies to execute a multi-year project. Award recipient projects will identify relevant equity-focused research questions, and using available data, build data models and visualizations to inform program improvement, particularly as it relates to social equity in TANF, which is defined as the fair and equitable distribution of public services and implementation of public policy.TANF programs aim to address the employment and self-sufficiency needs of TANF recipients and other individuals with low incomes. The existence of federally reported TANF administrative data and TANF agency case management data creates unique opportunities to evaluate equity in multiple stages of the program process, allowing TANF agencies to build evidence on the potential inequities that may exist in their programs for participants. The TANF Data Collaborative Equity Analysis Awards are intended to support participating TANF agencies to:Build data analytic capacity among TANF agency staff through intensive training and technical assistance;Contribute to evidence on the social equity of the TANF program by analyzing TANF administrative data; Encourage innovative approaches to leveraging one or more existing TANF data sources;Demonstrate the potential for improved TANF data quality, use, and governance to benefit improved agency programming and individual and family outcomes.OPRE funded the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) as part of the TANF Data Innovation contract between 2017 and 2022, which provided training and technical assistance to directly support the learning of pilot sites while generating lessons and materials for others interested in understanding and working with TANF data. (More information on TDC is available at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/increasing-data-analytics-capacity-….) OPRE awarded a contract for the TANF Data Collaborative 2.0 in FY 2023 to deliver training and technical assistance to entities awarded TANF Data Collaborative Equity Analysis Awards.

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement is to establish by cooperative agreement the National Tribal Child Welfare Center for Innovation and Advancement (Center). The Center will serve as the Children’s Bureau’s (CB) primary vehicle for delivering effective, high-quality technical assistance (TA) to Title IV-B and Title IV-E American Indian and Alaska Native Nations (AI/AN). TA provided will enhance organizational and system performance, and improve outcomes for tribal children, youth, and families by honoring Indigenous Ways of Knowing (IWOK) and working collaboratively to ensure the preservation of tribal cultures.The Center will provide culturally responsive TA in these areas:Workforce Supports: Increase the knowledge, skills, and capacities of child welfare professionals in the tribal child welfare workforcePrevention Programs: Support for the development, enhancement, and expansion of tribal prevention programsDevelopment of Tribal Child Welfare Programs in Support of Federal Requirements: Support successful development, enhancement, expansion, and implementation of tribal programs in meeting federal requirementsTribal-State Collaboration: Develop and support meaningful state and tribal collaborationsData Management: Enhance capacity for data collection, analysis, visualization, and procurement of case management systemsFunding Opportunity Goal(s) CB's goals are: (1) to assist tribes in achieving sustainable, systemic change that results in greater safety, permanency, and well-being for children, youth, and families. and (2) to dramatically improve the experiences of children, youth, and families when contact with the child welfare system is necessary and (3) to deliver effective, high-quality technical assistance to tribal child welfare agencies.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), within the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF), plans to solicit applications for cooperative agreements under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) Lead Agency Data and Research Capacity: Planning Grants (Phase I). These projects are meant to support partnerships between CCDF Lead Agencies and researchers to develop and improve state, territory, and tribal data systems and build the capacity of CCDF Lead Agencies to collect, analyze, and use data to guide child care policy decisions and program improvement efforts. Sponsored projects will work in collaboration to: (1) assess the current data and research capacity of the CCDF Lead Agency; (2) develop questions of interest to investigate state, territory, and tribal child care policies and practices; (3) develop logic models to identify the data needed to address the questions of interest; (4) identify data sources available to answer questions of interest and assess the accessibility of those data; (5) identify possible data sources from other state, territory, tribal, and local data systems for linking; (6) determine whether there is a need to collect data to answer policy-relevant questions; and (7) address the barriers to collecting, analyzing, and using data to inform child care policy decisions. These projects are intended to build the capacity of CCDF Lead Agencies to use data, including data on children, families, the workforce, and providers that participate in the child care subsidy system, to make data-informed decisions to improve child care policies and practices. These 18-month projects, with one project and budget period, will fund a planning phase to develop a research plan to address questions of interest to the CCDF Lead Agency, including a plan for identifying, linking, and using state, territory, and tribal data to inform child care policy decisions. These planning projects may be followed by a second competition (Phase II), under a separate Notice of Funding Opportunity, to support execution of the research plans to develop and improve state, territory, and tribal data systems. Projects must be conducted through partnerships between CCDF Lead Agencies (i.e., states, territories, Tribes, or local subsidy administering agencies) and researchers from institutions of higher education, within the state agency, research organizations, and/or other organizations with proven expertise conducting policy research. Applications are invited from CCDF Lead Agencies, institutions of higher education, research organizations, and other organizations with proven expertise conducting policy research. The research supported by this program should be collaborative from start to finish. The CCDF Lead Agency and their research partners must work together to assess the current data and research capacity of the CCDF Lead Agency and develop a feasible plan for identifying, linking, and using data to address questions of relevance to the CCDF Lead Agency. Sponsored projects will be expected to participate in a Consortium that will meet and communicate regularly to identify opportunities for coordination, such as to share information on facilitators and barriers to identifying and using data to inform child care policies and methods for linking data across systems, and to develop collective expertise and resources for the field. The Consortium’s collaboration will support research capacity and learning within individual projects and across award recipients. Funding is subject to availability of funds and the best interests of the federal government.

This cooperative agreement would establish a Center for Home-based Child Care Research to support research about home-based child care (HBCC) in states, territories, This cooperative agreement would establish a Center for Home-based Child Care Research to support research about home-based child care (HBCC) in states, territories, tribes, and/or local community contexts. The purpose of the Center is to provide leadership, build research capacity in the field, and offer support in the development and facilitation of local research to improve understanding of HBCC settings and providers as well as access by the families who seek and utilize HBCC. This research center would promote sound research examining HBCC supply and the factors that support or suppress the availability of HBCC in communities. In addition, this Center would advance the field’s understanding of HBCC engagement in public programs and quality improvement efforts. The Center’s activities would build research and evaluation capacity in the field and support research in states, territories, and/or tribes that could inform local initiatives designed to sustain and strengthen HBCC.HBCC providers, or individuals and small business owners paid to provide child care in private residences or homes, are an essential segment of the child care landscape. They constitute the largest portion of the child care and early education (CCEE) workforce and serve the vast majority of children birth through school-age who are in regular nonparental care. It is critical for the Administration for Children and Families and for local communities to learn more about HBCC providers, both the individuals providing the care and the characteristics of the programs where they provide child care, in order to inform federal efforts and state, territory, tribal and/or local initiatives to increase access to safe and high-quality child care particularly for families with lower-incomes and working families. The Center would promote sound research examining HBCC and the factors that support or suppress the availability of HBCC in states, territories, and/or tribes. In addition, this Center would advance the field’s understanding of HBCC providers’ engagement in publicly funded programs (e.g., child care subsidies, Head Start) and quality improvement efforts (e.g., Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS), quality initiatives (QI), and continuous quality improvement (CQI) initiatives). The Center’s activities would build research and evaluation capacity in the field and support research in state, territories and/or tribes that could inform local initiatives designed to sustain and strengthen the supply of HBCC. This Center would ideally bring together a team that has experience investigating HBCC, evaluating Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program and policies, and assessing the needs and experiences of families with lower-incomes, in tribal communities, and of historically marginalized populations. This Center would be equipped to strengthen the ability of local research partnerships to conduct model research projects that effectively address questions concerning HBCC in local contexts, while contributing to broader understanding in the field about HBCC.

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to provide opportunities for eligible small business concerns (SBCs) to develop interactive digital media (IDM) biomedical science resources for pre-college students and teachers.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications for centers to support transdisciplinary teams of clinical and mental health services researchers, behavioral scientists, social scientists, health information and communications technologists, health systems engineers, decision scientists, and mental health stakeholders (e.g., service users, family members, clinicians, payers) to engage in high-impact studies that will significantly advance clinical practice and generate knowledge that will fuel transformation of mental health care in the United States. Advanced Laboratories for Accelerating the Reach and Impact of Treatments for Youth and Adults with Mental Illness (ALACRITY) Research Centers will support the rapid development, testing, and refinement of novel and integrative approaches for (1) optimizing the effectiveness of therapeutic or preventive interventions for mental disorders within well-defined target populations; (2) organizing and delivering optimized mental health services within real world treatment settings; and (3) continuously improving the quality, impact, and durability of optimized interventions and service delivery within diverse care systems. The ALACRITY Centers program is intended to support research that maximizes synergies across various components of the mental health research ecosystem, including new discoveries in clinical research, transformative health care technologies, advances in information science, and new federal and state mechanisms for organizing mental health care.