Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies Program (Rural MOMS) | HRSA 25 041

Rural MOMS (HRSA-25-041) - Frequently Asked Questions

1) What is the Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies Program (Rural MOMS)?

Rural MOMS is a federal funding opportunity from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) focused on strengthening maternity and obstetrics care in rural communities. The program is designed to improve both access and quality of pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum-related care in places where services are limited by distance, workforce shortages, hospital unit closures, and fragmented referral systems.

2) What is the main purpose of this funding opportunity?

The main purpose is to build and support collaborative improvement and innovation networks in rural maternal health. In practice, that means supporting partnerships that can test, spread, and sustain better ways of organizing and delivering maternity and obstetric care across rural areas.

3) What does HRSA mean by "collaborative improvement and innovation networks"?

Based on the opportunity summary, these networks are partnerships of rural maternity stakeholders that work together to improve how care is coordinated and delivered. The emphasis is on collaboration that leads to measurable, system-level improvements and shared learning, rather than isolated efforts that do not spread beyond a single site or organization.

4) What types of challenges in rural maternal care is this program meant to address?

The program is framed around rural barriers such as long travel distances, workforce shortages, closures of hospital units, and fragmented referral systems. Rural MOMS is positioned to support approaches that make it easier for patients to get timely prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care, and to improve care quality in settings with limited resources.

5) What kind of award is this (grant vs. cooperative agreement)?

This opportunity is a discretionary cooperative agreement. A cooperative agreement generally indicates that HRSA expects to be meaningfully involved during the project period, such as through ongoing guidance, coordination, or required participation in shared learning activities, rather than providing funds with minimal federal interaction.

6) What is the Funding Opportunity Number (FON) and CFDA number?

The Funding Opportunity Number is HRSA-25-041, and the CFDA number is 93.912.

7) How much funding is available per award?

The stated award ceiling is $1,000,000 per award.

8) How many awards does HRSA expect to make?

HRSA expects to make three awards under this notice.

9) When is the application due?

The application closing date is April 22, 2025.

10) When was this opportunity created?

The opportunity was created on January 17, 2025.

11) Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is broad and includes many organization types involved in rural maternal health systems, including:

• Public and private institutions of higher education
• Nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status
• For-profit organizations (including small businesses)
• State, county, city/township, and special district governments
• Independent school districts
• Native American tribal governments and tribal organizations
• Hospitals (including rural emergency hospitals)
• Community-based organizations
• Community health centers, including federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)
• Rural health clinics

12) Are individuals eligible to apply?

No. Individuals are not eligible to apply under this notice of funding opportunity.

13) What does "domestic" mean for eligibility under this notice?

For this opportunity, "domestic" includes applicants located in the 50 states and Washington, DC, as well as Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the freely associated states and territories listed in the notice: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

14) Is this opportunity limited only to hospitals or only to clinical providers?

No. The eligibility list includes a wide range of entities, including hospitals, clinics, community-based organizations, governments, higher education, nonprofits, and for-profits. The program description also emphasizes cross-sector collaboration, which signals that multi-partner approaches are consistent with the intent of the opportunity.

15) What kinds of projects does Rural MOMS seem designed to support?

Rural MOMS is geared toward organizations that can convene rural maternity stakeholders and convert collaboration into measurable improvements in how care is organized and delivered. Examples mentioned in the opportunity summary include:

• Strengthening care coordination between rural clinics and higher-level obstetric facilities
• Improving readiness for obstetric emergencies
• Building referral and transport relationships
• Expanding the rural maternity workforce through innovative staffing and training approaches
• Reducing barriers to timely prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care

16) Does the summary list specific required activities?

The notice summary does not list specific required activities beyond establishing and supporting collaborative improvement and innovation networks. However, the program framing emphasizes system-level change, shared learning, and solutions that can be scaled or replicated across rural regions.

17) Does the program prioritize one-time interventions at a single site?

The summary suggests the opposite. The framing emphasizes solutions that can be tested, spread, and sustained, with an aim toward scalable or replicable approaches across rural regions rather than isolated, one-off interventions.

18) What does "improving access and quality" mean in the context of this opportunity?

Based on the summary, improving access relates to reducing rural barriers such as distance and limited local services, and improving the ability to obtain timely prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care. Improving quality relates to strengthening how care is organized and delivered, including coordination, emergency readiness, and referral/transport systems.

19) What role might partnerships play in a competitive application?

The opportunity is explicitly aimed at partnerships that build networks for improvement and innovation. That implies applicants should be able to convene relevant rural maternity stakeholders and support shared learning and coordinated action to improve maternal health systems in rural areas.

20) Which federal agency is offering this funding opportunity?

The funding opportunity is offered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).