FAQ: Maternal Health Training and Resource Center

If you are having trouble accessing the application, you would need to contact Grants.gov applicant support for more information.

Is it accurate that there will only be one award for this opportunity?

Yes, it is expected that only one award will be made.

Given only one award will be given for this grant—could you provide any insight into the type of awardee you are looking for?

You may consider reviewing the current awardee under this Notice of Funding Opportunity.

You mentioned earlier that there are currently 35 MHI awardees but the NOFO lists only 29. Can you speak to that difference?

There are currently 35 State Maternal Health Innovation Awardees. Those awardees can be accessed on the State Maternal Health Innovation (MHI) Program page.

Given that a new batch of MHI states will be awarded this year, how many HRSA-led MHI grantees organizational site visits should be assumed for staffing and budgeting purposes? 29+ the possible, additional 18?

Site visits are scheduled on a rolling basis, not all awardees will receive one in any given year.

Can you share more about the expectations of environmental scan? The environmental scan is listed under the capacity-building section. Is it a separate report or broadly built into capacity-building?

The environmental scan is intended to continuously inform strategies for addressing system-level gaps in maternal health as compared to the individual State MHI recipients’ plan through training and technical assistance.

Will the maternalhealthlearning.org URL be maintained beyond the end of the current Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center award? If yes, will it continue to be hosted by the previous awardee or transferred to the new awardee?

Yes, HRSA OIT will work with a new awardee (if applicable) to transfer domains.

Similarly, will Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center communication channels (e.g., e-newsletter, social media, YouTube) be maintained beyond the end of the current Maternal Health Learning & Innovation Center award? If yes, will they continue to be managed by the previous awardee or transferred to the new awardee?

Any materials will be managed by a new awardee (if applicable).

What period should a detailed work plan be provided for (e.g., year 1, all 5 years)?

The workplan should be inclusive of all five years of the project period.

Is the expectation that all State MHI's conduct and implement PPOR (Perinatal Periods of Risk) with their respective communities?

No, State MHI awardees are not required to conduct PPOR.

Is providing the Work Plan as outlined on pages 15-16 of the NOFO as Attachment 1 sufficient to meet the application requirements, or do we also need to include a version of the work plan in the Approach under a Work Plan section?

Please follow the instructions listed on pages 15 – 16 of the NOFO for the outline of the workplan.

What is the correct order for the Attachments? Pages 18-19 in the NOFO have Attachment 5 listed as the 5th year budget and Attachment 6 as the Project Organizational Chart, but the table on pages 33-34 has a different order (Project Organizational Chart is Attachment 5 and 5th Year Budget is Attachment 7). The HRSA presentation slide deck listed the Project Organizational Chart as Attachment 6.

Please follow the order listed on pages 15 – 16 of the NOFO.

For Attachment 3, bio sketches, it indicates you should not submit PII. Should we include key personnel names?

Yes, please include key personnel names.

Page 37 of the NOFO lists the Screening and Treatment for Maternal Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders grantees. These grantees are not specifically mentioned anywhere else in the NOFO and no other Maternal Health Recipients beyond MHI are specifically listed. Is the MHTRC intended to do something specifically for this group of grantees?

At this time, the MHTRC recipient is only expected to support State MHI awardees.

The NOFO does not specify if and where HRSA would like to see a table form of the full line-item budget. Does HRSA require a multi-year line-item budget as a separate attachment? I.e., a multi-year line-item budget for the proposed work that is more granular than what is needed to complete the SF424A? If yes, where should it be included? If a table is to be included are there any page limitations?

A multi-year line-item budget is to be included in the SF-424.

We understand there is currently a NOFO out for state maternal health innovation grants (HRSA-24-047). How many grant recipients in total across all cohorts will the MHTRC be expected to support during the project period?

Currently there are 35 awardees in the State Maternal Health Innovation Program. We expect the program grow from 35 entities and as such it can be expected that there may be at least 35-45 awardees that the MHTRC is expected to support.

Page 3 of the State Maternal Health Innovation NOFO (HRSA-24-047) for grantees states: “Cooperative agreement recipients' responsibilities will include… -Taking part in technical assistance and capacity building events organized by the designated Maternal Health Training and Resource Center provider(s). This can involve joining an annual meeting held by the center or collaborating with other federal agencies and awardees.” Is the MHTRC award recipient required to host an annual meeting for grant recipients?

HRSA expects the MHTRC to coordinate and host annual meetings for the SMHI awardees.

The State Maternal Health Innovation NOFO (HRSA-24-047) indicates that the state maternal health task forces are expected to provide technical assistance (p.9 - “Provide education and technical assistance in support of state and local action to address critical gaps in and needs for maternal health services in the state.”). Is the MHTRC award recipient expected to provide T/TA to the state task forces? If so, is the MHTRC expected to work with the task forces to coordinate the delivery of T/TA?

The MHTRC is expected to provide technical assistance to the awardees as they build and maintain the task force.

On page 18 of the NOFO, in the Attachments section, Attachment 1: Work Plan, it states to: “Attach the project’s work plan. Make sure it includes everything that Section IV.2.ii. Project Narrative details if you’ll make subawards or spend funds on contracts, describe how your organization will document funds.” Please clarify if the description of documentation of subaward/contract funds should be included in the work plan section of the narrative or within the work plan attachment.

Please include this information within the workplan attachment.

Pages 15-16 of the NOFO, within the Project Narrative Instructions, states:

• The work plan should be used as a tool to actively manage your program’s efforts in order to clearly describe technical assistance goals and objectives, measure progress, identify necessary changes, and quantify accomplishments. At a minimum, the work plan should include:
  1. Statement of need or problem statement;
  2. Goals and top priorities for technical assistance;
  3. Specific, time-framed, measurable objectives;
  4. Key action steps;
  5. Timeframe for completion;
  6. Staff responsible;
  7. Methods of evaluation and impact;
  8. Proposed innovations;
  9. Potential obstacles/pitfalls to project implementation.

Can HRSA please clarify if all of the above items are intended for inclusion in the Proposal Narrative, Work Plan attachment, or both?

Please include these items in the work plan attachment.

Page 16 of the NOFO, within the Project Narrative Instructions, states to: “Describe the activities or steps that you will use to achieve each of the objectives proposed during the entire period of performance in the Methodology section. Use a timeline that includes each activity and identifies responsible staff." Can HRSA please clarify if the work plan timeline is/can be part of work plan table attachment or must be included separately within the proposal narrative?

Please include a description of activities in the methodology section and attach the workplan as a table.