Deadline: 10-Apr-25
The Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) program improves and expands access to health care in rural areas by developing new sustainable rural residency programs, including rural track programs (RTPs).
Under the program, they provide start-up funding to grant recipients to create rural residency programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
These residency programs are then sustained long-term through viable and stable funding mechanisms, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other public or private funding sources.
Ultimately, this funding opportunity aims to address physician workforce shortages and challenges faced by rural communities.
Goals
- The program’s goal is for each recipient to establish a new rural residency program in a qualifying specialty by the end of the period of performance.
- These programs must be accredited by ACGME and sustainable long-term through viable stable funding streams, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other public or private funding sources.
- Funded rural residency programs will effectively train physicians to practice in and meet the clinical needs of rural populations. As a result, they expect a markedly higher proportion of graduates from these programs to enter careers serving rural populations when compared to traditional urban-based residency programs across the nation.
Objectives
- To achieve this goal, you must achieve the following objectives if funded:
- Develop a new rural residency program that is accredited by ACGME.
- Finalize a validated sustainability plan that includes ongoing funding streams to sustain long-term resident training after the program is established.
- Develop a structured plan to track and publicly report on resident career outcomes after graduation for at least 5 years after the first graduating class to assess retention in rural communities.
Program Pathways
- There are two pathways for this program. In your application, you will specify to which pathway your proposed residency program corresponds.
- Pathway 1: General primary care and high-need specialty
- This pathway supports developing new rural residency training programs that focus on training to meet significant rural health needs.
- The qualifying specialties in this pathway are family medicine, internal medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry, and general surgery.
- Pathway 2: Maternal health and obstetrics
- This pathway supports developing new rural residency programs with a focus on training to provide high-quality, evidence-based maternity care and obstetrical services in rural areas.
- Qualifying specialties in this pathway are obstetrics-gynecology and family medicine with enhanced obstetrical training.
- Enhanced obstetrical residency training must provide family medicine residents with extensive clinical experience in comprehensive maternity care, as outlined in ACGME’s program requirements. This includes dedicated training on labor and delivery. These programs must have faculty with clinical expertise to prepare family medicine residents for the independent practice of obstetrics in rural communities.
- Pathway 1: General primary care and high-need specialty
Funding Information
- Expected total available funding in FY 2025: $11,250,000
- Expected number and type of awards: 15 grants
- Funding range per award: Up to $750,000 per grant
- They plan to fund awards fully in Year 1 for the three-year period of performance (August 1, 2025, to July 31, 2028).
Who can apply?
- These types of domestic organizations may apply:
- Public or private institutions of higher education, as part of a graduate medical education (GME) consortium, including:
- Schools of allopathic medicine
- Schools of osteopathic medicine
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Rural hospitals
- Rural community-based ambulatory patient care centers, including Rural Health Clinics
- Native American tribal governments
- Native American tribal organizations
- Public or private institutions of higher education, as part of a graduate medical education (GME) consortium, including:
- Note: Individuals are not eligible applicants under this NOFO.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
