Health Resources and Services Administration Grant Opportunities

Department of Health and Human Services

Health Resources and Services Administration's Bureau of Health Professions

Centers of Excellence

This program provides grants to accredited schools offering graduate programs that serve minorities including African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and Native Alaskans who are under-represented within the health professions.

The grants must be used to link with schools of higher education, school districts and other community-based entities with the goal of establishing an expanded applicant pool for health professionals. Funds can be used for training programs to enhance the academic performance of under-represented minority students, provide fellowships to graduate students, improve the recruitment and retention of under-represented minority faculty, and provide training at community-based health facilities located at sites remote from main teaching facilities.

HRSA Bureau of Health Professions will award $7 million to 12 Centers of Excellence in FY2001. Applications must be postmarked by December 1, 2000. For more information on this grant please contact Mario Manecci at 301-443-2980 or Armando Pollack at

301-443-2981 or visit: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/Grants2001/coe.htm.

Health Careers Opportunity Program

The Health Careers Opportunity Program provides grants to help public and private nonprofit health profession schools and training programs fund programs that target students with disadvantaged backgrounds (i.e. economic, cultural, academic). Institutions applying for the grants must develop a pipeline for developing partnerships between institutions of higher education, school districts and other community-based organizations. Components of the programs can include recruitment efforts, financial aid outreach, scholarships and stipends, and work/study with community-based primary care providers. According to HRSA, legislation allows for fellowships at the graduate level; however, over the past few years, there have been no funds that have been set aside for this purpose, nor do they expect any for the upcoming year.

In FY2001, the HRSA Bureau of Health Professions will award approximately a total of $9 million to 23 Career Opportunity Programs. Applications must be postmarked no later than January 10, 2001.

For more information on the grants, please contact Kathy Balasko at 301-443-4233 or visit: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/Grants2001/hcop.htm.

Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students

This program provides scholarships to full-time, financially needy students from disadvantaged backgrounds enrolled in health professions and nursing programs. Qualified applicants include those enrolled in graduate programs in behavioral and mental health practice, which include clinical social work, professional counseling, clinical psychology, marriage and family therapy.

Participating schools are responsible for selecting scholarship recipients and determining the amount needed by each recipient. Scholarship applicants can apply only at schools that participate in the Scholarships for Disadvantaged program and interested students must contact the student financial aid office at the school he/she is enrolled in or plans to apply to for admission.

HRSA gave out $31,670,000 in awards during the 2000-2001 school year. Six awards totaling $778,000 were awarded to students of psychology. Funding is expected to remain the same for 2001-2002 competition and the deadline for applications for next year's competition is December 15^th.

For more information on this program, please contact either Angie Lacey at 301-443-5353 or Andrea Castle at 301-443-1701 or visit: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/dsa/pages/programs.htm#anchor1037554.

Disadvantaged Faculty Loan Repayment Program

This program encourages the expansion of disadvantaged representation in the health professions faculty positions. The program provides repayment of loans for up to $20,000/year for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who agree to serve as faculty members at eligible nursing and health profession schools. Each program recipient must agree to serve at least two years.

Eligible applicants must:

Be from a disadvantaged background.
Have a degree in allopathic or osteopathic medicine, dentistry, nursing or another health profession including graduate programs in behavioral and mental health practice (clinical psychology, clinical social work, professional counseling and marriage and family therapy).
Be enrolled in an approved health professions graduate training program.
Be enrolled as a full-time student in the final year of training, leading to a health professions degree.

HRSA expects to offer approximately 25 grants totaling $840,000 to health professions faculty in FY2000, and funding levels are expected to remain the same for next year. FY2001 applications will be due in May 2001. Application requests or questions can be faxed to 301-443-0845 or questions can be asked by phone at 301-443-4240 or by email or visit: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/dsa/pages/programs.htm#anchor1037554.