Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Grants for Health Services Research Dissertation Program (R36)

The AHRQ Grants for Health Services Research Dissertation Program (R36) provides dissertation grants for doctoral candidates. This program supports dissertation research that addresses AHRQ’s mission and priorities and welcomes any areas of health services research as dissertation project topics.

Funds can be requested to cover stipend, $15,000 other direct costs, and associated indirect costs.

Applications for dissertation research grants must be responsive to AHRQ’s mission, which is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable and affordable, and to work with HHS and other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used. Within the mission, AHRQ’s specific priority areas of focus are as follows:

• Research to improve health care patient safety.
• Harnessing data and technology to improve health care quality and patient outcomes and to provide a 360-degree view of the patient.
• Research to increase accessibility and affordability of health care by examining innovative market approaches to care delivery and financing.

Eligibility

Candidates must:

• Be U.S. citizens, non-citizen nationals, or permanent residents by the time of the grant award.
• Be full-time academic students in good standing, who are enrolled in an accredited research doctoral program in such fields as behavioral sciences, health services research, nursing, social sciences, epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, health informatics, engineering, and mathematics.
• Have completed all non-dissertation requirements for their doctoral degree by the time of submission of the application, including completion of their qualifying exams. (The only exception allowable will be the completion of required clinical internships that follow completion of the dissertation.)

Deadline

Application receipt dates are February 1, May 1, August 1, and November 1, annually.
When a postmark/submission date falls on a weekend or Federal holiday, the application deadline is automatically extended to the next business day.