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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Bridging the Word Gap Research Network (HRSA-16-040)

What is the Bridging the Word Gap Research Network (HRSA-16-040)?

It is a federal cooperative agreement opportunity from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HHS/HRSA). The initiative supports creating and operating a national, interdisciplinary research network focused on narrowing early vocabulary and language exposure gaps that often affect children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) families compared with higher-SES peers.

What problem is this opportunity trying to address?

The program targets differences in early language environments that can lead to gaps in vocabulary and language skills by kindergarten entry. These early gaps can contribute to later differences in reading ability and longer-term school success. The network is intended to develop, test, and spread interventions that strengthen early language development and reduce disparities in language exposure and outcomes.

Who is the target population for the network's work?

The work is explicitly focused on children from lower-SES backgrounds, including low-SES children who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The program also emphasizes family-centered approaches and attention to caregivers and family contexts.

What are Dual Language Learners (DLLs) in the context of this announcement?

DLLs are children who are developing proficiency in two languages (often including English as a second language). The announcement emphasizes that the network agenda and research should include dual/second language development and consider how interventions should be tailored for DLL children.

What type of funding mechanism is this?

This opportunity is a discretionary cooperative agreement. That structure generally means HRSA expects a more active federal role than in a standard grant, including ongoing coordination with an HRSA/MCHB Project Officer and organized collaboration and reporting.

Which federal agency is sponsoring the opportunity?

The sponsor is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), including HRSA's Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).

What is the CFDA number listed for this opportunity?

The announcement identifies CFDA 93.110.

How many awards are expected?

The announcement states that one award is expected.

When was the opportunity posted and when was it due?

It was originally posted on March 9, 2016, with a closing date of May 9, 2016.

Who is eligible to apply?

Eligibility is described broadly as "Others," with additional details referenced in the full announcement. The summary provided does not include the specific eligibility categories beyond that label.

What does HRSA mean by building a "national, interdisciplinary research network"?

The funded organization is expected to establish and maintain durable infrastructure that connects researchers across multiple disciplines tied to child and family health and development, and also includes real-world stakeholder partners. The network is meant to be active and working (not just a convening group), aligned on shared priorities, and designed to produce research that can be implemented in real settings.

Who are considered "stakeholders" in this network?

The announcement highlights stakeholder partners such as early intervention specialists, health care professionals, and child care providers. These partners are intended to help ensure the network's research priorities and studies fit real service settings.

What day-to-day operational expectations are emphasized for the network?

Applicants are expected to set up a clear internal communications structure with regular communication among network members, plus ongoing coordination with the HRSA/MCHB Project Officer. The cooperative agreement structure implies consistent, organized collaboration and reporting.

What is the required "national research agenda" deliverable?

A major deliverable is the creation or updating of a national research agenda. It should identify gaps in knowledge about early language development interventions, build on recent advances, and establish a focused set of priority research questions the network will pursue. The agenda should cover both general early language development and dual/second language development.

Does the network have to conduct research studies, or only coordinate and plan?

The network is expected to do more than coordination. The awardee must design and implement at least one research study that develops and tests an intervention aimed at improving early language exposure, vocabulary acquisition, and/or broader language development for children from lower-SES backgrounds.

What kind of interventions does HRSA highlight as especially important?

The announcement highlights interventions that improve parent or caregiver talk and support child language development within the family context. It also specifically calls for including fathers, recognizing that many family-language interventions focus primarily on mothers.

Is including fathers a requirement or a preference?

The announcement explicitly calls out including fathers as part of strengthening family-language interventions. Based on the provided summary, fathers are treated as an important and intentional inclusion area for interventions and special populations.

What does the announcement say about obtaining additional funding beyond the cooperative agreement?

The awardee is expected to secure external funding for a separate multi-level pilot intervention study. This signals that the network should leverage its infrastructure to compete for and win additional support that expands its intervention work.

What is a "practice-based research collaborative" and why is it required?

The network is expected to develop a practice-based research collaborative to keep research grounded in service delivery realities and to surface relevant research questions from people working directly with families and young children. This is intended to strengthen real-world relevance and implementation potential.

What capacity-building activities does HRSA expect the network to support?

HRSA emphasizes strengthening data infrastructure, improving analytic methods, and creating mentorship and research experiences for newer investigators. The goal is to leave behind stronger national capability to study vocabulary acquisition and its relationship to school achievement.

What dissemination responsibilities are required?

Dissemination is treated as a core responsibility. The awardee must maintain a network website that shares research findings, activities, and products. The program also requires a dissemination plan that includes at least two peer-reviewed publications per year, along with webinars, annual network meetings, conference presentations, and other outreach methods.

Who is dissemination intended to reach?

The announcement frames dissemination as technology transfer, aiming to get usable knowledge to researchers, providers, policymakers, educators, families, and programs serving low-SES children. Where appropriate, findings should be translated into practice so results can inform real program operations.

What are the four theme areas that should shape the network's research agenda?

The announcement provides four theme areas: (1) core questions about what makes caregiver-language interventions work and last (including fathers and DLL tailoring), (2) adapting parent-focused interventions for non-parental caregivers such as early care and education staff, (3) comparing delivery modes and cost-effectiveness and considering scalability (including online delivery and building on existing programs), and (4) contextual factors like poverty-related stressors and cultural/linguistic fit that influence engagement, fidelity, and outcomes.

What kinds of questions fall under Theme 1 (caregiver-language interventions)?

Theme 1 includes questions such as which intervention components increase the quality and quantity of caregiver language, what features support sustained behavior change after a program ends, how fathers can be meaningfully integrated, how to evaluate long-term impact, and how to tailor interventions for DLL children.

What kinds of questions fall under Theme 2 (non-parental caregivers)?

Theme 2 focuses on whether interventions designed for parents can be adapted for non-parental caregivers, especially early care and education providers serving infants and toddlers. It also considers whether information-only approaches are sufficient or whether coaching and more intensive supports are needed to change teacher behavior and reduce language gaps.

What kinds of questions fall under Theme 3 (delivery mode and cost-effectiveness)?

Theme 3 encourages comparing approaches such as basic information sharing, short workshops, short-term coaching, and longer-term coaching. It raises implementation questions like what training dosage is needed for real behavior change, whether online delivery can maintain reliability and fidelity, and whether language messaging or intensive interventions can be layered onto existing programs. It also highlights high-quality preschool environments as potential engines for language development, especially for DLLs, and asks how to scale effective interventions at low cost to reach low-SES families broadly.

What kinds of questions fall under Theme 4 (contextual and cultural factors)?

Theme 4 addresses factors that may shape intervention success, including caregiver stress, depression, and other poverty-related pressures that can affect engagement. It encourages research on responding to toxic stress exposure, building parental executive functioning skills, and supporting sustained behavior change. It also emphasizes cultural and linguistic fit, including how culture and native language affect fidelity and outcomes, whether interventions for native English speakers translate to non-native English-speaking groups, and how native English-speaking teachers can support DLL children who are less proficient in English.

Does the announcement address potential cultural resistance to common language-development messages?

Yes. It explicitly asks applicants to consider possible cultural barriers or resistance to messages like "talk to your kids," particularly for Latino, Native American, and African American families, and to identify respectful and effective ways to address those barriers.

How many intervention studies must be developed, and on what timeline?

For planning purposes, the program requires two intervention studies to be developed within one year of award, with clear plans either to implement them or to submit them to an external funder during the project period.

What are the expectations for continuation applicants?

For continuation applicants, HRSA expects a synopsis of the protocol already developed and a concrete plan for implementation.

At what levels can the required interventions be designed?

The announcement indicates the two required interventions can be designed at different levels, including population-level, community-level, and intensive family or individual-level interventions.

What does the announcement say about intensive family interventions in the context of poverty?

Intensive family interventions are expected to grapple with contextual realities of poverty, including toxic stress, and to pay attention to special populations such as low-SES fathers and DLL children.

Are health care settings considered a potential platform for intervention delivery?

Yes. Population-level efforts are encouraged to explore health care settings as a platform for delivering language development interventions and information, aligning with HRSA's mission to improve access and quality for underserved populations.

What values or guiding principles does HRSA emphasize for this program?

The opportunity is grounded in cultural and linguistic responsiveness, family-centered approaches, and accessibility for consumers. HRSA/MCHB also emphasizes broad representation of culturally distinct and historically underrepresented groups, suggesting that network composition, study design, recruitment, and dissemination should reflect equity goals and meaningful inclusion.

What kinds of outputs and engagement activities are expected beyond publications?

In addition to at least two peer-reviewed publications per year, the dissemination approach is expected to include webinars, annual network meetings, conference presentations, and other outreach methods, supported by an actively maintained network website.