Rural Residency Planning and Development Program

The Rural Residency Planning and Development Program, solicited under HRSA-26-047, aims to establish new, accredited rural physician residency programs in key medical specialties—family medicine, internal medicine, preventive medicine, psychiatry, general surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology—to alleviate physician shortages in rural communities. These programs must ensure that more than 50 percent of resident training occurs at clinical sites certified as rural by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The initiative provides start-up funding to launch these programs, with the explicit expectation that long-term sustainability will be achieved through stable funding sources such as Medicare GME payments, Medicaid support, private funding, or Critical Access Hospital certifications, and applicants must submit detailed evidence of their financial viability plans. Eligible applicants must submit a comprehensive application through Grants.gov by the July 8, 2026 deadline, consisting of a 60-page combined narrative and required attachments, including a work plan, staffing plan with job descriptions, biographical sketches limited to two pages each, formal agreements with partner entities, organizational charts, proof of rural training site status, sustainability documentation, and correspondence with state offices of rural health. Applications are evaluated on a 100-point scale across six criteria: Need, Response, Performance Reporting and Evaluation, Impact, Resources and Capabilities, and Support Requested, with the highest weight given to the program’s approach and long-term sustainability. Awards are made through a trade-off process, considering both merit scores and risk assessments, and are not bound by lowest price. The period of performance runs from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2029, with performance occurring across a network of approved rural training sites, not a single location. All recipients must comply with federal grants management regulations, including 2 CFR Part 200, and adhere to ACGME accreditation standards, NIST cybersecurity frameworks, and 45 CFR 170 health IT standards, while submitting regular progress and performance reports to HRSA.