Promoting the Importance of Infant and Childhood Vaccination Among Pregnant Women by Prenatal Care Providers | RFA IP 21 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA IP 21 001

This funding opportunity, titled "Promoting the Importance of Infant and Childhood Vaccination Among Pregnant Women by Prenatal Care Providers" (RFA IP 21 001), is a discretionary cooperative agreement offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its core aim is to support research and evaluation work that tests whether it is acceptable, practical, and effective to incorporate infant immunization promotion into routine prenatal care visits. The underlying idea is that pregnancy is a key decision-making window when many parents begin forming firm opinions about childhood vaccines, and prenatal care settings may be an underused channel to provide clear, confidence-building information before the baby is born.

The opportunity is driven by a specific gap the CDC is trying to address: obstetricians, midwives, and other prenatal care providers are often highly trusted by pregnant patients, but many of these clinicians do not regularly counsel on infant vaccines or respond to vaccine questions in depth. A common barrier is that prenatal providers may see infant vaccination as outside their specialty, which can make them uncomfortable initiating the conversation or addressing concerns. The grant is meant to explore strategies that help prenatal care providers communicate about infant and childhood vaccines in ways that fit naturally into prenatal care workflows, are acceptable to patients and providers, and measurably improve parents' confidence and willingness to follow the recommended immunization schedule once the child is born.

Because this is a cooperative agreement, the CDC typically expects to be actively involved in the project beyond simply providing funds, such as offering technical guidance, aligning evaluation approaches with public health priorities, and helping ensure the work can be translated into practice. The funded work is expected to go beyond general education campaigns and instead generate evidence about what works in real-world prenatal care environments. That could include developing and testing counseling approaches, training or support tools for prenatal clinicians, referral or handoff models to pediatric care, clinic-based messaging or materials tailored to prenatal visits, or other interventions designed to normalize and strengthen early vaccine conversations.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of public and private entities: state, county, city or township governments; special districts; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in those nonprofit categories); and other applicants as clarified in the full eligibility text. The funding activity area is health, and the relevant CFDA listings are 93.083 and 93.185.

In terms of scale, the award ceiling is $500,000, and the CDC anticipated making one award under this notice, indicating a single, relatively focused project rather than a large multi-site program. The notice was created on November 16, 2020, with an original application deadline of February 2, 2021, and applications were required to be submitted electronically by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.

Overall, this grant is essentially about turning prenatal care into a more effective starting point for childhood immunization confidence. It recognizes prenatal providers as influential messengers, identifies provider discomfort and perceived scope-of-practice boundaries as a real-world obstacle, and funds an evidence-building effort to determine which prenatal-visit strategies are workable, acceptable, and capable of improving downstream vaccination decisions for infants and children.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - ERA in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Promoting the Importance of Infant and Childhood Vaccination Among Pregnant Women by Prenatal Care Providers" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.083, 93.185.
• This funding opportunity was created on Nov 16, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 02, 2021 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 500 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for RFA IP 21 001

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