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FAQ: Dental Clinician Educator Faculty Development Program
Funding Opportunity Number: HRSA 21-049
Trainees and Training
Budget and Justification
Does a Teaching License limited to practice at dental school satisfy the requirement to be licensed?
Yes. This license must enable the faculty member to teach clinical primary care dentistry (general dentistry, pediatric dentistry or dental public health). They must have a health professional degree (DDS, DMD, DH, and MD/DO) and meet all other criteria listed in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
If the individual is a full-time faculty member, on a non-tenure track with less than ten years out, but is an "Associate" Professor would an individual like this meet the NOFO eligibility requirement?
No. A person with an Associate Professor title would not be considered junior faculty.
Would this funding opportunity support dental therapy educators?
Yes. A dental therapy educator would be eligible if the institution and the individual faculty member meet all the criteria described in the NOFO.
We're a dental residency program. Are we eligible to apply?
Yes, as stated in the NOFO (page. 6), Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) accredited dental residencies in general, pediatric or dental public health holding their own accreditation are eligible to apply.
Our possible candidate has a BDS but not a DDS. Is this candidate eligible for the award?
No. An individual with a BDS would not be eligible for this award.
The Project Director must be non-tenured. Does this include faculty who are not on a tenure track at all?
Yes. The faculty can be on a non-tenure track.
May the Project Director have a full-time teaching appointment in a hospital-based post-doctoral residency program that is CODA approved?
Yes. The Project Director may have a full-time teaching appointment at a hospital-based post-doctoral residency program holding their own accreditation.
Can the application come through a medical school?
No. The application must be through an eligible entity as described in the NOFO.
Is a military dental residency program eligible to apply?
No. Federal entities are not eligible for HRSA awards.
We applied for Initial Accreditation but have not yet received provisional accreditation. Is our institution eligible to apply?
No. Your institution must have received accreditation by CODA when you apply for this award.
We are a residency program within a hospital system, not an academic institution, though they play an important role in the education of our pediatric dental residents. Would they be considered?
No. Though faculty of residency programs are eligible as stated in the NOFO (page 8) they must hold a full-time non-tenured junior faculty appointment at an accredited dental school or dental hygiene school; school of allopathic or osteopathic medicine.
The NOFO states that the Project Director has to be a junior faculty member and can only support the Project Director's salary and development up to a certain amount. Is it allowable for the faculty mentors to be listed on the grant as long as their salaries are completely in-kind and no expense to the grant?
Yes. The mentor(s) should be identified in the application. However, salary for the mentor(s) is not allowed.
My institution has applied and been awarded HRSA grants previously. Do I need to create a new System for Award Management (SAM)?
No. You don't need to register a new account; however, you must make sure the registration is still valid and your institutions information is not expired on SAM.gov.
I don't understand what a funding priority is. Can you please provide more detail?
Funding priorities can add points to an application's review score, however they are not required to apply. These priorities align with the program's legislative authority. There are eight funding priorities with up to ten priority points available for this NOFO and are requested in Attachment 7. As stated in the NOFO (page 30), "a funding priority is the favorable adjustment of combined review scores of individually approved applications when applications meet specified criteria. Priority points are granted to any qualified applicant that demonstrates they meet the criteria."
HRSA staff reviews the documentation in the application to support the award of funding priority points which have a set, predetermined value, and presents those findings to the Objective Review Committee (ORC). The specific qualifications for each priority are detailed in the NOFO.
For Priority 1, is your definition of a department of primary care medicine restricted to a department of internal or family medicine at a medical school?
Yes. For Priority 1, the department of primary care medicine (family medicine, general pediatrics or general internal medicine) must be at a medical school. Collaborations with a department of family medicine, general pediatrics or general internal medicine at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or a rural health clinic should be applied for under Priority 4, Formal Relationships.
Priority 7 states "the number of graduates from your institution that were placed in practice settings serving underserved areas or health disparity populations." Does this number relate to the graduated students who were placed during their dental training or self-placed after graduation in these practice setting?
This priority relates to the number of your graduates who, after graduation, enter practice settings that serve underserved or health disparity populations.
Should I write the work plan in the narrative in addition to the Standardized Work Plan (SWP) form?
The narrative of the response to program purpose should align with the SWP providing strong evidence that the work plans steps will achieve the stated goals and objectives (see page 26 of the NOFO).
Is there a specific bio sketch form that should be filled by my mentors?
No. There's no particular bio sketch form that must be used. See the NOFO (page 17-18) for what the biographical sketch should include.
How do you define a department of primary care medicine?
In the NOFO (page 1 and 10) we define a department of primary care medicine as family medicine, general pediatrics, or general internal medicine.
Can you have more than one faculty mentor? I.e., would two co-mentors be permitted?
Yes. More than one mentor can be identified in the application.
Budget and Budget Justification
The NOFO explains that mentors cannot be paid but can the Principal Investigator (PI) (as this would be someone other than the Project Director (PD)) be paid from this funding?
HRSA recognizes only one PD/PI and for this award that would be the junior faculty member.
Can we fund a faculty teacher, project coordinator position that would not be an advisor or the PI?
The award can provide salary research assistant and consultants, but not for mentors, secretarial and administrative assistants.
For the 55% full-time equivalent (FTE) that must be towards the development of the faculty recipient, does this mean that no more than 45% of their time can be devoted to clinical care (either direct or supervision of residents).
The amount of time devoted to clinical care would depend on the nature of the training project. 55% of their FTE must be spent on career development or their training project.
Are we limited to requesting a maximum of 55% for the PD salary during each of the five years?
Yes. You are limited to requesting 55% of the PD's FTE salary for each of the five years.
Date Last Reviewed:
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