Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Program | HRSA 16 059

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 16 059

The Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Program is a discretionary grant opportunity from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) intended to strengthen the behavioral health workforce by training doctoral-level psychologists to work in integrated care environments. The central goal is to prepare psychology trainees to deliver behavioral health services, including substance abuse prevention and treatment, within settings that combine primary care and behavioral health care. A major emphasis throughout the program is integration in day-to-day clinical practice, meaning trainees are expected to learn how to function as part of care teams where behavioral health is coordinated with medical services, particularly for communities that have limited access to care.

The program is specifically focused on underserved and/or rural populations. Applicants are expected to show how their training model will expand access to behavioral health services in these communities and how an interprofessional approach will be used to do it. HRSA is looking for projects where psychologists are trained alongside, and in active collaboration with, at least two other health disciplines, with clear descriptions of who those partners are and what the collaboration looks like in practice (for example, shared clinical workflows, team-based case consultation, co-located services, coordinated screening and referral processes, or integrated treatment planning). The program structure is meant to push training programs beyond classroom instruction and into real clinical systems where primary care and behavioral health are delivered together.

A core requirement is building or leveraging partnerships between academic institutions and primary care practice sites that serve underserved and/or rural populations. These partnerships are not meant to be nominal; applicants need to demonstrate that they can support hands-on training in integrated primary care settings and that their partner sites can absorb trainees in meaningful roles. The grant expects applicants to increase the number of experiential training slots beyond the program's current capacity. These slots can be for doctoral-level psychology students, doctoral-level psychology interns, and/or post-doctoral psychology residents. In addition to expanding the number of placements, applicants must enhance both didactic training and experiential training so that participants develop concrete competencies for integrated and team-based care, again explicitly in collaboration with multiple health disciplines.

Workforce diversity and cultural competence are also built into the program expectations. Applicants must recruit trainees who are either committed to serving underserved and/or rural communities or who reflect the diversity of the populations being served, and they must provide stipend support to trainees during their experiential training in integrated primary and behavioral health settings. In other words, the program is not only about producing more trained psychologists, but also about making sure trainees are prepared to work effectively across cultures and communities and that financial support helps make those training opportunities feasible.

HRSA also outlines what competitive applications tend to include. Strong applicants typically already have partnerships in place, or have partnerships far enough along that trainees can be placed into integrated primary care training sites immediately or within the first 60 days after the award starts. Competitive proposals also show a track record of successfully placing doctoral students, interns, and residents into primary care settings that serve underserved and/or rural populations, which signals the program can execute quickly and effectively. Another competitive element is a concrete plan to increase the diversity of the behavioral health workforce by recruiting and retaining trainees from varied backgrounds who intend to work in underserved and/or rural settings after finishing the program. Finally, applicants are expected to use Rapid Cycle Quality Improvement (RCQI) to track performance and continuously adjust operations during the project period, with the idea that the training model will be actively monitored and improved over time rather than run on autopilot.

The opportunity includes a funding priority that can affect scoring. A ten-point priority is available for institutions where experiential training focuses on vulnerable groups, including older adults and children; individuals with mental health or substance-related disorders; survivors of abuse, trauma, or combat stress conditions such as PTSD and traumatic brain injury; people experiencing homelessness; chronically ill individuals; and their families. This priority is meant to steer training capacity toward populations with high need and complex clinical and social challenges.

There is also a funding preference authorized under Section 791(a)(1) of the Public Health Service Act. Applicants who qualify for this preference are placed in a more competitive position among fundable applications, which can matter in a tight funding environment. The announcement does not fully restate the statutory criteria in the provided text, but it clearly indicates that HRSA will apply the preference where applicable.

Eligibility is limited to APA-accredited entities: APA-accredited doctoral-level schools and programs of health service psychology, APA-accredited doctoral internships in professional psychology, APA-accredited post-doctoral residency programs in practice psychology, or combinations of these, as long as the applicant holds accreditation for every program component included in the application. Applicants must submit documentation of active APA accreditation, including the dates covered and the expiration date, and include the accreditation letter as Attachment 10. Tribes and Tribal Organizations may apply if they meet the eligibility and accreditation requirements. Eligible applicants must be located in the United States or specified U.S. territories and affiliated jurisdictions (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and others listed in the notice). Foreign entities are not eligible for HRSA awards under this opportunity.

Administrative details in the source data identify the opportunity as HRSA-16-059 under CFDA 93.191, categorized as a discretionary grant in the health funding activity area. The original closing date listed is January 5, 2016, and the opportunity anticipated 21 awards. The posted award ceiling is shown as 0 in the source data, which typically means the ceiling was not specified in that field of the listing rather than indicating no funding, but the notice itself should be consulted for any detailed budget expectations or limits. Overall, the program is structured to expand integrated primary care behavioral health training capacity, grow and diversify the psychology workforce, and place trainees into real-world settings serving communities that have historically had the least access to behavioral health services.

• The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.191.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2015-10-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-01-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 21 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for HRSA 16 059

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