Rural Health Research Center Cooperative Agreement

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This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Research Center (RHRC) Cooperative Agreement Program. The purpose of the RHRC Cooperative Agreement Program is to increase the amount of high quality, impartial, policy-relevant research to assist decision-makers at the federal, state and local levels to better understand problems faced by rural communities, and provide information that will improve access to health care and population health. RHRC recipients will conduct policy-oriented health services research on rural issues and synthesize the results into reports easily understood by a non-technical policy audience. They will develop and disseminate research products in consultation with ORHP, in its official policy role, to State Offices of Rural Health and other decision-makers. RHRC recipients will maintain and keep up-to-date an extensive library of data sets on their rural topic of concentration (e.g., include access to health care for the under- and uninsured, health care quality and outcomes, home health, and rural health clinics, racial and ethnic disparities) geo-coded so they can analyze the data for a variety of definitions of rural. Recipients will develop a policy-relevant research portfolio each year with input from ORHP, their Expert Work Group (if applicable), and other decision-makers. RHRC recipients must frame rural issues into researchable questions. Applicants must demonstrate capabilities in manipulating complex data sets and in linking across data sets. The awards provided through the RHRC Cooperative Agreement Program are designed to provide support for a four-year research center with a specific area of research concentration, and intended to provide an infrastructure to support health services researchers entering the field to explore the research complexities of rural health issues. This Cooperative Agreement Program will support health services research projects but excludes clinical/biomedical research and the expenditure of funds for delivery of services.

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