Funding Opportunity Number: PA-24-155
Deadlines: June 16, 2025, October 16, 2025
Background
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is the lead Federal agency charged with improving the quality of healthcare for all Americans. Providing high-quality care means providing safe, effective, and individualized care to meet the consumer’s desires but also accomplished promptly, efficiently, and equitably. AHRQ develops science-based knowledge, tools, and data to improve healthcare and help consumers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers make informed decisions.
Small research (R03) grants provide flexibility for initiating studies which are generally for preliminary or short-term projects. These grants are non-renewable. Some examples of the types of projects that R03 research supports include:
- Pilot or feasibility studies
- Secondary analysis of existing data
- Small, self-contained research projects
- Development of research methodology
- Development of new research technology
The AHRQ small grant is a mechanism for supporting discrete, well-defined health services research projects that realistically can be completed within two years (or less) within the budget constraints of the mechanism. Because the research strategy section of the application is limited to 6 pages, an R03 grant application may not contain the same level of detail as that found in an R01 application. Accordingly, appropriate justification for the proposed work can be provided through literature citations, data from other sources, or from investigator-generated data. Preliminary data are not required, particularly in applications proposing pilot or feasibility studies.
The Small Research Grant (R03) is an award made by AHRQ to an institution/organization to support a discrete health services research project. The R03 research strategy proposed by the applicant institution/organization must be related to the mission and research interests of AHRQ, which are detailed below. Although the PD/PI is responsible for conducting and supervising the research, the actual applicant is the research institution/organization legally accountable for the performance of the award and the expenditure of funds.
AHRQ research priority areas guide health services research grant applications responding to all open Notices of Funding Opportunity, including large and small research projects and cooperative agreements, research demonstration and dissemination projects, training and career development, and conference grant applications. Including priority populations remains essential for all AHRQ-supported research projects involving human subjects (NOT-HS-21-015).
AHRQ supports research in all healthcare settings, including the hospital, long-term care, ambulatory care, home healthcare, pharmacy, and care transitions between settings. Research may involve many partners and other groups, including patients, families, clinicians, non-clinical healthcare staff, policymakers, payers, healthcare organizations, providers and accreditors, local and State governments, the Federal Government, and others.
AHRQ Research Priority Areas
- Research to improve healthcare quality and patient safety
- Research to improve healthcare delivery and practice improvement
- Research to enhance whole-person healthcare delivery
For more detailed information and research priorities, please see the opportunity website.