For programmatic or technical questions:
HealthEquityTA@cms.hhs.gov

For grants management or budget questions:
Sharron Jernigan
410.786.3478
sharron.jernigan@cms.hhs.gov

The Minority Research Grant Program provides grants to support research aimed at reducing health disparities by researchers at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).

The goals of the program are to:

• Support health services researchers to pursue topics that impact minority beneficiaries
• Investigate health disparities to achieve a better understanding of how to reduce health disparities through funded research
• Foster the dissemination of best practices and innovations among grantees, within CMS and beyond
• Improve healthcare quality for minority CMS beneficiaries in order to reduce health disparities

All applications should describe how proposed research contributes to the reduction in health disparities in patient experience or readmissions, and improvement in the quality of healthcare and access to healthcare for Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and/or Medicare beneficiaries.

Eligible applicants include:

• Faith-based organizations
• For-profit organizations and small businesses
• Native American tribal organizations
• Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS
• Private institutions of higher education
• Public and state controlled institutions of higher education

In addition, applicants must:

1. Be a researcher at an HBCU, HSI, AANAPISI, or TCU
2. Propose research focused on testing solutions to disparities that impact readmissions or patient experience among Blacks/African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and/or American Indians and Alaskan Natives

Award ceiling: $325,000
Award floor: $250,000
Project period: 2 years
Estimated number of awards: 2

CMS requires that applicants provide cost-sharing equal to at least 1% of the award amount, which may be satisfied through in-kind contributions.

Links to the full announcement and online application procedures are available through grants.gov.