This page provides questions and answers related to the fiscal year (FY) 2023 National Training and Technical Assistance Partners (NTTAP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). We will add new questions as necessary, so please check this document periodically for updates.
Budget
- How does the tiered minimum Activity and Learning Collaborative structure work?
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For each funding range there is a required minimum number of Activities and Learning Collaboratives that you must complete across all Objectives. Higher funding levels have more required activities. See Table 1 in the FY 2023 NTTAP NOFO for funding levels, associated minimum number of activities and learning collaboratives.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Does HRSA require an indirect cost rate agreement?
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No, but if you include indirect costs in your budget, you must supply a copy of your most recent indirect cost rate agreement under Attachment 7: Other Relevant Documents. Under 45 CFR § 200.414(f), you may elect to charge a de minimis rate of 10 percent of modified total direct costs. If you do not have an indirect cost rate agreement, costs that would be included in such a rate (e.g., accounting services) may be charted as direct line-item costs.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Does the federal executive salary limit apply to NTTAP funding?
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Yes. You may not use NTTAP funding to pay a salary at a rate higher than Federal Executive Level II. For FY 2022, the level is $203,700, and it is updated periodically. In future years of your performance period, check Salaries & Wages (opm.gov) for more information and the current salary limitation. The link to “Rates of Pay for the Executive Schedule” has the most current rate.
Added: 9/26/2022
- How may NTTAPs use their budgets for travel?
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Staff travel is allowed for meetings with other NTTAPs and T/TA providers, other collaborating organizations, and to health centers and relevant conferences if it supports carrying out the Project Work Plan (PWP).
Added: 9/26/2022
- Can I include activities supported in part, but not completely, by FY 2023 NTTAP funding in my PWP?
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Activities that will be partially supported by NTTAP funding should be included in your PWP, though only the NTTAP funds used to support those activities should be reflected in your budget components. For further information, contact the Grants Management Specialist listed on your Notice of Award.
Added: 9/26/2022
Minimum Required Activities and Learning Collaboratives
- For the Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Improvement NTTAP, under which Objective should applicants include work that supports the Health Center Resource Clearinghouse?
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Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Improvement NTTAP applicants should include work related to the Health Center Resource Clearinghouse as an Activity under the Patient Safety Objective.
Added: 10/28/2022
- Does each Learning Collaborative have to fit into just one budget year or project year? If a Learning Collaborative starts later in Year 1, can it carry over into Year 2?
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The minimum expectation for a Learning Collaborative is four sessions in each budget period, so each Learning Collaborative in your PWP would have to meet that requirement. Once the annual requirement is met, an NTTAP could restart or continue the Learning Collaborative in a later year with four more sessions.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Can you clarify the roles of the lead and the co-lead of a Learning Collaborative?
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One NTTAP must lead each Learning Collaborative. That organization has the primary responsibility to enroll participants, lead content development, run the sessions, post any tools and resources on their website, and evaluate the program. Other NTTAPs can collaborate by contributing content and otherwise supporting the effort based on their area of expertise. For collaborating partners, participation should be included in the PWP as a national audience activity rather than a Learning Collaborative.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Can an NTTAP change which Objective a Learning Collaborative will be aligned with, or must a Learning Collaborative focus on the same Objective throughout the three years?
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Yes, you may change which Objectives have Learning Collaborative activities each budget period when you file your NCC progress report. Changes should reflect the current needs of health centers as shown through a needs assessment.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Are Learning Collaboratives included within the minimum number of Activities?
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Yes, Learning Collaboratives are considered Activities and are included in the minimum number of required Activities.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Can all NTTAPs that support a Learning Collaborative include the activity in each NTTAP’s respective PWP?
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Yes, you may include joint Learning Collaboratives in each partner’s PWP. Mark the activity as “Learning Collaborative” in the Activity Audience Field if you are the NTTAP leading the Learning Collaborative. If you are a collaborator, mark the activity as “National Audience” in the Activity Audience Field and provide details about the Learning Collaborative collaboration in the Activity Description field in your PWP. However, it will not count toward the minimum number of required Learning Collaboratives as shown in Table 1 of the FY 2023 NTTAP NOFO.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Is there a maximum number of NTTAPs that can partner on a Learning Collaborative?
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No, but only the NTTAP that leads the Learning Collaborative may count it for meeting the required minimum number of Learning Collaboratives; other partners may count it as a National Audience Activity.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Can a Learning Collaborative include the minimum 10 health centers from a single state or region, or must it include health centers from across the country?
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You should make training available to the widest possible health center audience nationwide, but there is no requirement that participants in a specific Learning Collaborative must include participants from geographically diverse areas nationwide.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Should we record Learning Collaborative sessions to share through the Clearinghouse?
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The T/TA resources produced by the NTTAPs are made available through the Health Center Resource Clearinghouse and may include recorded webinars, athough NTTAPs do not have to record each Learning Collaborative session.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Can I propose more than the required minimum number of Activities or Learning Collaboratives?
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Yes. You may elect to conduct additional Activities to support achievement of each Objective. The EHBs system will allow for a maximum of 12 Activities per Objective.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Can more than one Learning Collaborative support an Objective?
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Yes. You may conduct multiple Learning Collaboratives to support a single Objective. Learning Collaboratives are considered Activities and are included in the maximum of 12 Activities per Objective.
Added: 9/26/2022
Project Work Plan
- Can I change the Emerging Issue focus during the period of performance?
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Yes, the Emerging Issue Objective may be adjusted during the period of performance based on health center needs, and the change will be captured on your PWP Form in future Non-Competing Continuation (NCC) progress reports.
Added: 10/24/2022
- With which organizations must NTTAPs collaborate?
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NTTAPs must collaborate with at least one other HRSA-supported training and technical assistance organizations such as State and Regional Primary Care Associations, Health Center Controlled Networks, or other NTTAPs. Applicants must also collaborate with at least one other regional and national organizations (not including NTTAPs) that will support the proposed NTTAP.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Can NTTAPs work with State Primary Care Associations to offer training directly to health centers in individual states?
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The work of NTTAPs should reach the widest possible audience of health centers. Programming that targets a select group of health centers should also be shared widely through the Health Center Resource Clearinghouse.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Should NTTAP publications be counted as T/TA in the PWP?
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Yes. Include any publications developed in your PWP.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Does HRSA expect contractual arrangements between applicants to support collaborative activities?
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While contractual agreements and the resulting flow of funds among NTTPs are allowed under this cooperative agreement, these agreements are not considered to be required collaborations or collaborative activities for the purposes of this NOFO. The NTTAP contracting with another NTTAP to complete work would enter the activity in their PWP and list the contract and contracted NTTAP in their Attachment 6: Summary of Contracts and Agreements. The NTTAP that is being contracted to complete the work must not enter the activity on the PWP or describe the contractual agreement in their application.
Added: 10/24/2022
- Can applicants address different emerging issues during the 3-year period of performance?
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Yes. Applicants may change the emerging issue which they address at the beginning of a budget period. The Objective-level target will remain the same throughout the 3-year period of performance. In the Project Narrative you must describe how you will evaluate the need to change the emerging issue topic.
Added: 9/26/2022
- How do applicants address the Health Center Excellence Framework (HCEF) domains?
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The HCEF aims to spur innovation and performance improvement and help health centers assess their performance across seven key domain areas. In the PWP, you should highlight in the Activity Description Field how your Activities will improve health center performance in the HCEF domains. Information about the HCEF domains is in the Advancing Health Center Excellence Presentation Slides (PDF - 2 MB).
Added: 9/26/2022
- How should we count participants for the T/TA Participant Target of the Learning Collaborative sessions?
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Learning Collaboratives must have at least four sessions for a single learning event. If an attendee has taken part in one or more sessions of the same Learning Collaborative, the attendee should be counted as one participant towards the Objective total. Consecutive sessions are considered a continuation of a single learning collaborative.
However, if the same attendee took part in multiple Learning Collaboratives, they should be counted as a participant for each collaborative, i.e., as two participants towards the Objective total.
Multiple attendees from the same health center are counted individually for the participant target, however they are counted as one organization for meeting the minimum of 10 unique health center organizations.
Added: 9/26/2022
- How do I fill out the Learning Collaborative Participation Behavior Change field?
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The Learning Collaborative Behavior Change field is marked as a required field, however it is only needed if the activity is marked as a Learning Collaborative. For National Audience activities you do not need to fill out this field.
Added: 9/26/2022
- How can I show Activities conducted over multiple budget periods?
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Activities that span multiple budget periods can be reflected by entering an end date that occurs in a future budget period before the end of the 3-year period of performance (June 30, 2026). In your application, only include Activities if the start date occurs during the first budget period (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024). You will have the opportunity to update the Activity descriptions and add new Activities that start in budget periods two and three in your FY 2024 and FY 2025 NCC progress report.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Do all proposed Activities need to start within 60 days of award?
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No. All Activities do not have to begin within 60 days, but applicants must propose to start at least one Activity within 60 days of award.
Added: 9/26/2022
- How do I document collaborative work related to the Health Resource Clearinghouse and the National T/TA Needs Assessment?
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The work that you do to support these collective efforts can be counted as Activities in your PWP. Activities that you contribute towards the Health Resource Clearinghouse should be included under Objective 1: Access to Comprehensive Care. Activities which support the National T/TA Needs Assessment can be included under Objective 2: Emerging Issues.
Added: 9/26/2022
Metrics
- For the School-Aged Children NTTAP, if the childhood immunization objective is selected, how should the Uniform Data System (UDS) measure for 2-year-old immunization rates be used to measure progress?
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The Childhood Immunization measure under the Chronic Disease Management Objective relates to the specific UDS measures that individual health centers must report on. School-based NTTAP applicants that choose this measure should align their activities to support health centers to improve childhood immunization status.
As with all UDS outcome measures, the work done by NTTAPs will indirectly influence each outcome measure. Applicants may develop activities that broadly support childhood immunization rates and indirectly have a positive impact on the immunization status of children 2 and younger.
Added: 10/24/2022
- For the Health Center Resource Clearinghouse Objective for the National T/TA Center, the number of health centers who access resources can only be measured if a login requirement is created. Would it be acceptable to measure how many times resources are accessed instead?
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If the number of health centers that access resources cannot be counted without requiring a login into the Clearinghouse, tracking the number of times that a resource has been accessed from its source is an acceptable measurement. This should be documented in the baseline data source field within the PWP.
Added: 10/24/2022
- If an organization has already provided T/TA on a specific objective or topic in the previous period of performance, should the baseline still be listed as 0?
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Yes, the baseline should be zero, even if the NTTAP has completed work to support the objective in a previous period of performance.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Has HRSA set up the metric for training utility?
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No. Instead, as part of the cooperative agreement, we work with you to create the evaluation metric as we carry out the program. Meanwhile, you should create your Participant Rating of T/TA Usefulness Target based on the instructions listed in Appendix B of the FY 2023 NTTAP NOFO.
Added: 9/26/2022
- Are new UDS data prepopulated for Objectives that use this data source?
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UDS data will not be prepopulated. If UDS measures are referenced in the Objective, applicants must enter the most current UDS data available in their PWP.
Added: 9/26/2022
- How will health centers be counted for the Objective metrics which are outlined in Appendix C?
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For all metrics which include the counting of health centers, multiple sites of the same health center should be counted as one organization.
Added: 9/26/2022
Post Award
- Do you expect results of the National T/TA Needs Assessment from Year 1 to be available prior to submission of the first NCC application?
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HRSA will work with the National T/TA Center awardee to decide a schedule for completion of the needs assessment. As results become available, the National T/TA Center awardee must give the needs assessment results to all NTTAPs for consideration when planning their future work. NTTAPs may use the needs assessment results to update the PWP either during the NCC application process or through PWP modifications that are negotiated with the Project Officer, depending on when assessment results are available.
Added: 10/24/2022