FY24 Participation in WIC & Prevalence of Health Risks Associated with Maternal Mortality | USDA FNS OPS PHRAMM 24

Opportunity Information: Apply for USDA FNS OPS PHRAMM 24

The FY24 Participation in WIC and Prevalence of Health Risks Associated with Maternal Mortality opportunity is a discretionary federal funding announcement from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) focused on strengthening the evidence base around how WIC participation relates to maternal health risks tied to maternal morbidity and mortality. The overall purpose is to support rigorous, academically led research that can better clarify whether, how, and for whom WIC participation is associated with the prevalence of health conditions and risk factors that contribute to severe maternal outcomes. The intent is not only to generate new findings, but to do so in a way that helps public health and nutrition policymakers target improvements for populations experiencing the greatest burden of maternal health risks.

A central feature of the opportunity is that the funded organization is expected to run a robust academic subgrant program. In practice, that means the awardee would function as a hub that competitively issues and manages subawards to researchers, supports high-quality studies, and helps build a sustained research community focused on WIC and maternal health outcomes. The solicitation emphasizes using existing secondary data for analyses, while also encouraging the identification, construction, and linkage of novel datasets that can deepen understanding of WIC's relationship to maternal health risks. This points to work such as integrating multiple data sources, improving analytic datasets, and enabling studies that go beyond what any single dataset can show on its own.

The research funded through the subgrant program must include analyses that examine the prevalence of relevant maternal health risk conditions by WIC participation status overall and also stratified by race, ethnicity, and age. This requirement signals that the agency is seeking results that can speak directly to disparities and differential risk across groups, rather than producing only broad averages. The expected outcome is evidence that can inform actions to improve maternal health, particularly among groups at highest risk for maternal morbidity and mortality, by helping stakeholders understand where risks are concentrated and how WIC participation intersects with those risks.

Administratively, the opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number USDA FNS OPS PHRAMM 24) will be awarded as a cooperative agreement, which generally indicates substantial federal involvement compared with a standard grant, often through collaboration on planning, oversight, or coordination. The activity category is Food and Nutrition, and it is associated with CFDA/Assistance Listing 10.557 (WIC). The program anticipates making a single award (Expected Awards: 1) with an award ceiling of $1,000,000. Eligible applicants are accredited public and private institutions of higher education, meaning colleges and universities are the intended applicants rather than individuals or non-academic entities. The original application closing date listed was February 14, 2024, and the opportunity was created on November 15, 2023.

In summary, this funding opportunity supports one university-led awardee to build and operate a subgrant-making research program that advances high-quality, data-driven studies on the relationship between WIC participation and maternal health risks associated with maternal mortality, with required attention to prevalence patterns overall and across race, ethnicity, and age groups, so that findings can be used to guide practical improvements in maternal health outcomes for the most at-risk populations.

• The Food and Nutrition Service in the food and nutrition sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY24 Participation in WIC & Prevalence of Health Risks Associated with Maternal Mortality" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.557.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2023-11-15.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-02-14. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for USDA FNS OPS PHRAMM 24

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