Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) Program: RERC on Rehabilitation Strategies, Techniques, and Interventions | HHS 2022 ACL NIDILRR REGE 0024

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2022 ACL NIDILRR REGE 0024

This grant opportunity, titled "Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) Program: RERC on Rehabilitation Strategies, Techniques, and Interventions" (Funding Opportunity Number HHS 2022 ACL NIDILRR REGE 0024), is a discretionary research and development grant administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Administration for Community Living (ACL), specifically the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). It falls under CFDA 93.433 and supports science and technology-oriented rehabilitation research intended to strengthen and modernize services authorized under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.

The core purpose of the RERC program is to make rehabilitation services more effective by backing advanced engineering research and the development of innovative technologies that address concrete rehabilitation challenges or remove environmental barriers faced by people with disabilities. In practice, an RERC is expected to do more than invent or prototype a tool. The program emphasizes a full pipeline that includes demonstrating and evaluating technologies, supporting improvements in how services are delivered, encouraging adoption and scale-up through private-sector production and distribution, and offering training opportunities that help build a workforce capable of using and advancing these technologies.

This particular competition focuses on the field-initiated area of "Strategies, Techniques, and Interventions." In this context, NIDILRR is looking for research and development that leads to rehabilitation technologies, practices, and services that improve health and functional abilities across a broad range of disabling conditions. The opportunity highlights multiple domains of functioning, including physical, cognitive, sensory, and communication abilities. The intended outcomes are practical and measurable: new or improved products, devices, or other technological advances that enhance rehabilitation services in real-world clinical settings (such as hospitals, outpatient rehab, or specialized clinics) and community settings (such as home-based rehabilitation, community health programs, or independent living environments). The emphasis on both clinical and community environments signals that projects should consider usability, accessibility, and implementation beyond controlled lab conditions, including how interventions fit into everyday routines and service systems.

Eligible applicants span a wide range of organization types, reflecting the program's interest in multidisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration. Applicants may include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments and other tribal organizations; nonprofits (including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) entities) other than higher education institutions; for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; and other eligible entities as clarified in the full notice. This breadth allows proposals to be led by universities, medical and rehabilitation research organizations, community-based nonprofits, industry developers, or government-affiliated research entities, often in partnership with one another.

The project period is 60 months total, structured as five 12-month budget periods, which is typical for centers expected to conduct iterative research, development, evaluation, and knowledge translation over several years. The maximum award amount listed is $925,000 (award ceiling), and the opportunity anticipated making one award. The funding notice was created on January 25, 2022, with an original closing date of March 28, 2022. Applications had to be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.

Overall, this opportunity is aimed at building a rehabilitation engineering center that can produce tangible, adoptable advances in rehabilitation strategies, techniques, and interventions, while also proving those advances work in practice, helping service systems integrate them, and supporting the broader ecosystem needed for technologies to reach people with disabilities at scale.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) Program: RERC on Rehabilitation Strategies, Techniques, and Interventions" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.433.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jan 25, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 28, 2022 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 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 $925,000.00 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, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), 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, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for HHS 2022 ACL NIDILRR REGE 0024

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