HHS, HRSA Promote Simpler NOFOs Pilot Initiative

The office supply store Staples became noted for its advertisements featuring an “Easy Button”. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is promoting a similar approach by launching what HHS calls its “Simpler NOFOs Pilot Initiative.”

HRSA officials recently touted the fact that HHS aims to simplify and redesign its notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs) and application guides to make them easier to read and for applicants to respond to them. The effort comes as part of an overall trend in the federal government to make grant application and compliance requirements less complex. For example, one of the key goals of the Office of Management and Budget in its recent proposed revisions to Title 2, including the uniform guidance (2 C.F.R. Part 200), was to simplify it and better address how applicants and recipients of federal financial assistance should seek funding and manage their awards.

Under the Simpler NOFOs Pilot Initiative, HHS states that it will:

• use plain, simple language;
• remove unnecessary information;
• make critical information easier to find;
• improve navigation; and
• reduce the average time to apply.

HHS designed and evaluated a prototype of a simplified NOFO last year. The agency notes that feedback and evaluation of the prototype showed that it can reduce the average time to complete an application by 31%. HHS will use the simplified NOFO this year for about 100 HHS NOFOs. HHS and HRSA will be evaluating its impact and identifying how to make even more improvements in federal fiscal year 2025.

HRSA programs that will use the simplified NOFO include:

• HRSA-24-009: Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program
• HRSA-24-012: Rural Communities Opioid Response Program-Psychostimulant Support
• HRSA-24-014: Rural Substance Use Disorder Impact Program (RCORP - Impact)
• HRSA-24-016: Opioid-Impacted Family Support Program
• HRSA-24-017: Advanced Nursing Education - Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (ANE SANE)
• HRSA-24-019: Primary Care Training and Enhancement: Physician Assistant Rural Training in Behavioral Health (PCTE-PARB) Program
• HRSA-24-046: Supporting Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Screening and Intervention (FASD)
• HRSA-24-060: Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part F: Dental Reimbursement Program
• HRSA-24-061: Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part D: Women, Infants, Children and Youth Grant Supplemental

Knowing the multitude of complexities facing nonfederal entities as they try to navigate federal awards, this effort is definitely worthwhile and hopefully other agencies will follow suit. How easy is that!

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