Service Area Competition | HRSA 26 005

Opportunity Information: Apply for HRSA 26 005

The Service Area Competition (SAC) grant opportunity (HRSA 26 005) is a discretionary grant program run by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to support the Health Center Program in fiscal year 2026. Its core purpose is to improve the health of underserved communities and populations by funding organizations that can deliver comprehensive, high-quality primary health care services. The funding is intended to ensure continued access to community-based care in specific geographic or population-based service areas, particularly where consistent, reliable primary care access is most at risk.

A central feature of SAC is that it is tied to specific "service areas" that HRSA opens for competition. The service areas available at any given time are listed in a Service Area Announcement Table (SAAT) for each SAC Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). In practical terms, applicants do not apply for a generic pool of funding; they compete to serve one of the defined service areas identified by HRSA. HRSA may also release additional competitions during the year through a related mechanism called Service Area Competition - Additional Area (SAC-AA). SAC-AA comes into play when an organization that previously received an award can no longer continue providing services in its funded service area, and HRSA needs to quickly reopen competition to ensure residents do not lose access to care.

The geographic scope is broad and includes the United States and its territories. In this opportunity, "Domestic" is explicitly defined to include the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. This definition matters because it clarifies where funded service delivery can occur and what locations HRSA considers within the program's eligible coverage area.

Eligibility is limited to organizations, not individuals. Individuals are explicitly ineligible to apply. Eligible applicant types include state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments); and nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education). The funding instrument is a grant, and the activity category is health. The program is associated with CFDA number 93.224.

From a funding and scale perspective, HRSA anticipates making 51 awards under this announcement, with an award ceiling listed at $171,000,000. The original application closing date is September 22, 2025, and the opportunity record shows a creation date of July 24, 2025. Overall, SAC is best understood as a structured, service-area-specific competition designed to maintain or reestablish stable Health Center Program coverage in designated communities, with HRSA using the SAAT (and, when necessary, SAC-AA) to target where competition and continuity of care are most needed.

• The Health Resources and Services Administration in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Service Area Competition" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.224.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-07-24.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-09-22. (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 $171,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 51 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, 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.

Apply for HRSA 26 005

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