HHS Is More Than NIH
When people think of HHS grants, they think of NIH. That makes sense: NIH alone accounts for hundreds of open opportunities and $47 billion in annual extramural funding. But the rest of HHS runs programs that fund very different work, and most guides either skip them entirely or give them a paragraph. We track opportunities listed under the Department of Health and Human Services continuously. The count, refreshed daily from our database, is 575 open opportunities across at least 10 sub-agencies. The majority are procurement contracts posted on SAM.gov; the grant programs covered below are tracked under their own sub-agency names. The six agencies that matter most for grant seekers beyond NIH are HRSA (community health, rural health, workforce), CDC (disease prevention, public health infrastructure), ACF (child welfare, Head Start, family services), SAMHSA (behavioral health, substance use, crisis services), ACL (aging, disability, Alzheimer's), and AHRQ (health services research, patient safety). Each funds different types of organizations, and the application processes vary widely. If you already have our NIH guide bookmarked, this is its complement. Nonprofits looking for a broader view should also see our nonprofit grants guide, which covers eligibility across all federal agencies. Between those guides and this one, you have the full HHS picture.
HRSA: Community Health and Rural Programs
The Health Resources and Services Administration funds programs focused on expanding healthcare access, particularly in underserved and rural communities. Most of the FY2026 HRSA competitive cycle has closed. Use the live search and HRSA source notices for the current inventory. HRSA's biggest program is the Health Center Program (Section 330), which funds Federally Qualified Health Centers serving over 30 million patients annually. Community health center mandatory funding has been a subject of recurring congressional debate, with short-term extensions rather than long-term reauthorization. The spring competitions for National Technical Assistance Programs, Telehealth Centers of Excellence, Ryan White Part D, the Rural Communities Opioid Response Program, and the Women's Initiative for Screening and Health all stopped accepting applications between March and May 2026. The following late-cycle windows have now closed: Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending (CPF/CDS) awards, in separate construction and non-construction tracks, closed July 6, 2026. HIV Technical Assistance for Indian Country, with awards up to $1.5 million, closed July 10, 2026. Nutrition Security for People with HIV: Implementation Technical Assistance Provider closed July 10, 2026. National HIV Clinical Training for Residents Program closed July 13, 2026. HRSA announced in October 2025 that the Ryan White program would transition to a new allocation formula starting FY2026, which will shift funding between jurisdictions over a five-year period. HRSA grants typically require applicants to serve medically underserved populations or operate in Health Professional Shortage Areas. Geographic eligibility matters. Check HRSA's shortage area designations before applying.
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CDC: Disease Prevention and Public Health Infrastructure
CDC is one of the most prolific HHS grant-makers outside NIH in Funding Landscape data, but the exact open count changes as notices turn over. Domestic public health programs fund disease surveillance, injury prevention, environmental health, occupational safety, and public health infrastructure. CDC's Public Health Infrastructure Grant (PHIG), awarded in December 2024, distributed over $5 billion to 107 state, local, and territorial health departments for core infrastructure capacity. CDC's global health programs are almost entirely PEPFAR-related, covering HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in more than 20 countries. Most of these shared a February 17, 2026 deadline that has now passed. New PEPFAR cycles may post later in the fiscal year. The July block-grant deadline has closed; longer-running domestic opportunities include: Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant, closed July 1, 2026. National Center for Construction Safety and Health Research and Translation (U54), with awards from $3 million to $5.75 million, due December 1, 2026. Public Health Crisis Response Cooperative Agreement, from $50,000 to $5 million (estimated total: $1 billion), due February 11, 2027. Commercial Fishing Occupational Safety training and research grants, $150,000 to $975,000, due January 31, 2028. Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Centers, $4.5 million to $9 million, with a rolling deadline through October 2028. CDC grants generally go to state and local health departments, universities, and public health nonprofits. Eligibility varies by program: some are restricted to government entities, others open to universities and nonprofits. Some CDC programs are cooperative agreements, meaning CDC staff work actively alongside grantees rather than providing hands-off funding.
ACF: Child Welfare, Head Start, and Family Services
The Administration for Children and Families runs some of the largest social services programs in the federal government, including Head Start, the Child Care and Development Block Grant, and TANF. ACF opportunities turn over by program and service area, so use the current agency notice rather than a fixed count. Head Start is ACF's flagship. Congress provided $12.357 billion for Head Start in the FY2026 appropriations signed in early 2026, an increase of $85 million over FY2025. Despite early uncertainty about funding levels, the program continues to serve about 800,000 children, though that represents only 26% of eligible preschool-age children. The June directed-project window has closed; other ACF pathways include: ACF Congressionally Directed Community Projects 2026, closed June 16, 2026. Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five (PDG B-5), funding state-level early childhood coordination. Administration for Native Americans (ANA) grants supporting Native community projects. The National Electronic Interstate Records Exchange System competition from earlier in the year has closed; Head Start/Early Head Start recipient competitions for specific service areas post on a rolling regional schedule. ACF's operations have changed. In 2025, five of the ten Office of Head Start regional offices were closed, and about 18% of ACF staff were reduced, including grants management personnel. Applicants should expect longer processing times for applications and awards than in previous years.
SAMHSA: Behavioral Health and Crisis Services
SAMHSA's competitive cycle is active again. On July 6, 2026, HHS announced more than $281 million across 15 SAMHSA grant programs. The announcement covers treatment, overdose prevention, school mental health, trauma services, primary and behavioral health integration, recovery, first responders, suicide prevention, and privacy technical assistance. The largest announced program totals include $68.2 million for Medication-Assisted Treatment, $55.7 million for Project AWARE, $40.6 million for National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative community centers, and $34.7 million for First Responders-CARA. Those are total program amounts, not awards promised to one applicant. Near-term action: Project AWARE, First Responders-CARA, Mental Health Awareness Training, GLS Campus Suicide Prevention, Assertive Community Treatment, overdose-prevention, statewide-family-network, and several other July releases show July 27 deadlines in the current federal listings. Applicants should open the exact notice because award ceilings and eligible applicants differ. The CCBHC lane has more time. The CCBHC Planning, Development, and Implementation round lists $94 million in program funding, up to $1 million per award, and an August 17 deadline. A separate CCBHC planning-grant notice also lists August 17. State, provider, and existing-clinic applicants must choose the notice that matches their role. Do not rely on the old statement that Project AWARE, Garrett Lee Smith, trauma-center, or CCBHC rounds are closed for the year. New FY2026 notices now exist. Search the live SAMHSA inventory, then confirm the controlling notice on Grants.gov before preparing a package.
ACL: Aging Services, Disability, and Alzheimer's Programs
The Administration for Community Living is the smallest of the six agencies covered here but funds work that few other federal sources support: aging services, disability research, Alzheimer's disease programs, elder justice, and assistive technology. ACL maintains a small challenge and grant portfolio whose exact open count changes with each cycle. ACL's spring 2026 competitive round, including the Falls Prevention demonstration, the Whole-Person Health networks competition, the Senior Nutrition Program preventative health grants, the Alzheimer's Disease Programs Initiative, the RERC on AI-Driven Assistive and Rehabilitation Technologies, and the Elder Justice Innovation Grants, closed between March and May 2026. The June challenge has closed; longer-dated items in ACL's challenge portfolio include: Health at Home Challenge, up to $2 million, closed June 24, 2026. ACL Cultivating Connected Communities Challenge, up to $600,000, due July 16, 2027. ACL Caregiver AI Prize Challenge, up to $2.5 million, due February 6, 2029. ACL grants are well-suited for Area Agencies on Aging, Centers for Independent Living, state units on aging, disability organizations, and universities with rehabilitation or gerontology programs. ACL is consistently under-covered in grant guides, which can mean a more specialized applicant pool for qualified organizations.
AHRQ: Health Services Research
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the smallest HHS research agency, with an annual budget of about $380 million. AHRQ funds health services research, patient safety, and healthcare quality improvement rather than biomedical research. AHRQ is distinct from NIH in important ways. Its research focuses on how healthcare is delivered, organized, and paid for, rather than on the biology of disease. If your work involves reducing medical errors, improving care coordination, studying healthcare disparities, or evaluating clinical decision support systems, AHRQ is a more natural fit than NIH. AHRQ implemented the HHS transition to 2 CFR Part 200 in October 2024 (notice NOT-HS-25-007), which affects all active and new grants. Key changes include the single audit threshold increasing to $1 million and the de minimis indirect cost rate moving to 15%. The FY2026 presidential budget proposed folding AHRQ's programs into NIH, which would eliminate AHRQ as a standalone agency. Congress has previously rejected similar proposals, and the outcome depends on the appropriations process. Applicants should check AHRQ's current funding announcements on Grants.gov, as the transition status may affect which mechanisms are available.
Other HHS Sub-Agencies
Several other HHS components offer grants or contracts worth knowing about. Indian Health Service (IHS) maintains procurement opportunities for healthcare facilities serving Native American and Alaska Native communities. These are contracts rather than grants, covering facility construction, medical equipment, and health services. The FDA opportunities previously highlighted here, Novel Approaches to Support Therapeutic Development in Ultra-Rare Cancers and the Retail Food Safety Regulatory Association Collaboration, closed June 15 and July 14, 2026 respectively. The FY26 FDA Broad Agency Announcement for regulatory science closed in late February 2026. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) ran a notable Innovation in Behavioral Health (IBH) competition with an award ceiling of $7.5 million; it closed in early June 2026. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, maintains open-ended BAAs for biomedical countermeasure development with deadlines extending to 2027 and 2028.
Policy Changes Affecting HHS Grants in 2026
Three policy and operating changes matter in 2026. First, HHS grant terms now use 2 CFR Part 200 together with HHS-specific provisions in 2 CFR Part 300. Applicants should use the assistance listing and terms in the current notice rather than copying an older HHS budget or indirect-cost template. Second, federal grant-review and termination language has changed through executive action and agency implementation. Read the current award terms, continuation language, and termination provisions, especially for multi-year projects. Third, HHS is implementing a department reorganization that includes the Administration for a Healthy America. Current official materials are transitional: HHS budget documents group former HRSA and SAMHSA programs under AHA, while July grant announcements and Grants.gov notices still use SAMHSA and other familiar issuing names. Applicants should follow the organization and contact named in the controlling notice. Do not wait for every website and chart to use the same label, and do not assume an agency name change cancels a posted opportunity.
Which Agency Fits Your Organization
Each agency serves a distinct audience. Here's a quick decision framework. Primary healthcare in underserved areas goes to HRSA. Health centers, rural clinics, and telehealth programs are HRSA's core portfolio. Population-level public health work belongs with CDC. Disease surveillance, injury prevention, environmental health, and public health workforce development are CDC's territory. SAMHSA covers behavioral health and substance use treatment: crisis services, community behavioral health clinics, opioid response, and suicide prevention programs. Child and family social services fall under ACF. Head Start, child welfare, family violence prevention, and refugee services are ACF programs. Organizations serving older adults or people with disabilities should look at ACL. Aging services, Alzheimer's programs, assistive technology, and elder justice are ACL's focus. AHRQ is for researchers studying how healthcare is delivered and can be improved. Health services research, patient safety, and quality improvement are AHRQ's niche. A concrete example: a community health center in rural Appalachia that also runs a substance use treatment program could apply to HRSA (for health center operations and telehealth), SAMHSA (for substance use treatment funding), and potentially ACF (if they serve families through Head Start partnerships). Organizations whose work spans multiple agencies should search across all of them rather than limiting to one.
How to Search for HHS Opportunities
On Funding Landscape, search by agency name (e.g., "HRSA" or "CDC") to see open opportunities from each sub-agency. You can also search by topic ("behavioral health," "community health center," "falls prevention") and filter to show only grant opportunities. All HHS grant opportunities also appear on Grants.gov. Since December 2025, HHS agencies including NIH post exclusively to Grants.gov rather than maintaining separate announcement systems. For SAMHSA specifically, the SAMHSA Grants Dashboard and FY2026 NOFO Forecast show upcoming and open competitive grant opportunities. For HRSA, the Find Funding page at hrsa.gov organizes opportunities by program area. For block grant programs (SAMHSA SUPTRS, SAMHSA MHBG, HRSA Title V MCH), the application process is different from competitive grants. Block grants flow to states by formula, and states then distribute funds. If your organization provides services funded through block grants, contact your state agency rather than applying directly to the federal government. Our federal funding search guide covers additional strategies for searching across Grants.gov and SAM.gov. Small businesses pursuing HHS contracts should also see our small business funding guide for information on set-asides and certifications. Save searches for agencies relevant to your work and check regularly. HHS agencies post new opportunities throughout the year, and some programs have rolling deadlines.