Maternal and Child Health Research Consortium (MCH RC) | HRSA 25 020

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 25 020

The Maternal and Child Health Research Consortium (MCH RC) is a federal funding opportunity from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), through its Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), designed to build and support a coordinated, national group of researchers focused on improving maternal and child health outcomes. The program sits under the broader Maternal and Child Health Bureau Research Consortium Program (MCHB RCP) and is meant to bring several older MCHB research funding approaches under one umbrella. Historically, MCHB supported separate efforts such as research networks, single-investigator innovation projects, and field-initiated research studies. This FY 2025 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) consolidates those past tracks into a single consortium structure intended to make the research enterprise more connected, practice-relevant, and impact-oriented. Notably, in FY 2025 this solicitation replaces the former Research Network Program, including the Pregnancy-Related Care Research Network (PRCRN) and Pediatric Research in Office Settings (PROS), signaling a shift from stand-alone networks toward a unified consortium model.

A central expectation of the MCH RC is that funded recipients will not conduct research in isolation. Instead, awardees are required to build strong research-practice partnerships that include community organizations, people and families with lived experience, and key MCHB-supported service systems and programs. The opportunity specifically points to collaboration with initiatives such as Healthy Start, the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, and Title V MCH programs. The intent is to ensure that research topics, methods, and products are grounded in real-world needs and that findings can be translated into actionable improvements in service delivery, policy, and program design. Through these partnerships, recipients are expected to identify and promote best practices for maximizing the impact of their research, which typically means emphasizing practical relevance, implementation feasibility, dissemination pathways, and feedback loops with the communities and systems that will use the results.

Programmatically, applicants are expected to align their work with one of the NOFOs specified categories and may select one or more priority topics within that chosen category. While the summary provided does not list the categories or topic areas, the structure implies that HRSA is guiding applicants toward targeted domains of maternal and child health need, while still allowing flexibility to address multiple related priorities within a category. In general, a consortium framework like this also tends to value cross-site learning, shared measures or methods where appropriate, and the ability to generate evidence that is credible to both research audiences and practitioners working on the ground.

This funding opportunity is offered as a cooperative agreement, which usually means HRSA expects substantial involvement during the project period, such as collaboration on priorities, participation in consortium-wide activities, and coordination on dissemination. The opportunity is classified as discretionary funding within the health activity category and is listed under CFDA 93.110. The funding opportunity number is HRSA-25-020, with an original application closing date of April 23, 2025. HRSA anticipates making three awards under this announcement. The listing shows an award ceiling of 0, which typically indicates the ceiling is not specified in the high-level synopsis or is described elsewhere in the full NOFO rather than meaning there is no limit in practice.

Eligibility is limited to domestic applicants, with "domestic" explicitly defined broadly to include all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the freely associated states and territories named in the notice (the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau). Eligible organization types include public and non-profit institutions of higher education, private non-profit entities, and a wide range of government entities such as state, county, city/township, special district governments, and independent school districts. Federally recognized Native American tribal governments are eligible, as are Native American tribal organizations (including those other than federally recognized tribal governments). The eligibility list also indicates nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (so long as they are not institutions of higher education) may apply, along with other qualifying domestic entities as specified in the full criteria.

Overall, the MCH RC opportunity is aimed at creating a more integrated national research infrastructure for maternal and child health that is tightly connected to practice settings and community realities. By requiring meaningful partnerships with families, community organizations, and major MCHB program platforms, the program emphasizes applied, implementable research that can move faster from evidence generation to real improvements in maternal and child health outcomes.

• The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Maternal and Child Health Research Consortium (MCH RC)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.110.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-01-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-04-23. (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 3 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, Others.

Apply for HRSA 25 020

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