Supporting the Provision of High Quality, Comprehensive, and Sustainable HIV Services in National Teaching and Referral Hospitals in the Republic of Kenya under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) | Apply Online

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1) What is the title of this grant opportunity?

The opportunity is titled "Supporting the Provision of High Quality, Comprehensive, and Sustainable HIV Services in National Teaching and Referral Hospitals in the Republic of Kenya under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)."

2) Which U.S. agency is offering this funding?

This funding announcement is offered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

3) What is the main purpose of the opportunity?

The overall intent is to strengthen HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services in Kenya through the country’s National Teaching and Referral Hospitals (NTRHs), with the aim of reducing new HIV infections and decreasing HIV-related illness and deaths.

4) Where will the work supported by this opportunity take place?

The focus is on the Republic of Kenya, specifically through National Teaching and Referral Hospitals (NTRHs).

5) What types of HIV outcomes is this opportunity trying to improve?

The announcement emphasizes outcomes across the HIV service continuum, including increasing knowledge of HIV status, preventing new infections, improving linkage to care, strengthening antiretroviral therapy (ART) services, and achieving viral suppression as a central performance goal.

6) What does the "full HIV service continuum" mean in this funding announcement?

Based on the description provided, it refers to a connected set of services that includes HIV testing (to increase knowledge of HIV status), linkage to care for people who test positive, prevention approaches for adults and children, and high quality clinical care including ART with an emphasis on viral suppression.

7) Why is viral suppression highlighted as a key goal?

Viral suppression is emphasized because it improves individual health outcomes and reduces onward transmission. The announcement frames it as a key driver for reducing HIV-related morbidity and mortality and for lowering new HIV infections (incidence).

8) What kinds of prevention activities are emphasized?

The opportunity prioritizes preventing new infections among both adults and children, and notes that prevention may reflect a combination of biomedical, behavioral, and service-delivery strategies that can be integrated in hospital and referral settings.

9) What is meant by strengthening National Teaching and Referral Hospitals as Centers of Excellence (COEs)?

The announcement describes a model where selected NTRHs are strengthened not only to deliver strong direct patient services, but also to serve as hubs for mentorship, training, and capacity building for health care workers (HCWs). These hospitals are expected to function as national leaders in quality HIV care.

10) Are recipients expected to provide services directly to patients, or focus only on training and systems?

Both are included. The announcement positions the NTRHs as sites for strong direct patient services while also serving as hubs for mentorship, training, and broader capacity building to improve HIV service delivery beyond the hospitals themselves.

11) What is "advanced case management" in the context of this opportunity?

The funding announcement explicitly includes advanced case management as part of the capacity-building effort, signaling attention to complex patients such as those with advanced HIV disease, treatment failure, co-infections, or other clinical complications requiring higher-level expertise and structured clinical support.

12) What type of award mechanism is this?

This opportunity was a discretionary cooperative agreement rather than a simple grant.

13) What does a cooperative agreement imply about CDC's role?

The description indicates CDC would typically anticipate substantial involvement in program oversight, technical guidance, monitoring, and collaboration during implementation.

14) What is the program category for this opportunity?

The opportunity falls under the health category.

15) What is the CFDA number associated with this opportunity?

The opportunity is associated with CFDA number 93.067.

16) Who was eligible to apply?

Eligible applicants were limited to public and state-controlled institutions of higher education.

17) Why are public and state-controlled institutions of higher education the only eligible applicants?

Based on the description, this aligns with the teaching-hospital and academic-medical-center orientation of the work and the expectation that the recipient can support clinical training, mentorship models, and sustainable institutional capacity development.

18) What is the funding opportunity number?

The funding opportunity number is CDC RFA GH16-1621.

19) When was the opportunity posted and created?

It was posted on December 4, 2015, and created the same day (December 4, 2015).

20) What was the application closing date?

The closing date was February 4, 2016.

21) How many awards were expected?

The announcement projected a single award (expected awards: 1).

22) What was the maximum funding amount (award ceiling)?

The award ceiling was $10,500,000.

23) What does it mean that only one award was expected?

With only one anticipated recipient, the design implies a centralized implementation partner that would coordinate activities across targeted referral hospital sites, standardize approaches to quality improvement, and support system-wide mentorship and training functions.

24) How does PEPFAR relate to this opportunity?

The announcement is explicitly framed under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and is described as a combined service-delivery and health-system-strengthening investment to improve HIV outcomes using Kenya’s top-tier referral hospitals.

25) What role do health care workers (HCWs) play in the project approach?

HCWs are central to the capacity-building model. The NTRHs, as Centers of Excellence, are expected to provide mentorship, training, and capacity building to improve the quality and consistency of HIV service delivery.

26) Is this opportunity focused only on the general population?

No. The intent includes improving how HIV services are delivered for the general population as well as for key and priority populations.

27) What kinds of improvements in service delivery are implied?

The description points to improvements in HIV testing and linkage to care, prevention approaches for adults and children, higher quality clinical care and ART services, and quality improvement supported by Centers of Excellence that also train and mentor the broader workforce.

28) What is the long-term capacity goal for participating hospitals?

The opportunity emphasizes building long-term institutional capacity in major referral hospitals so they can function as national leaders in high quality, comprehensive, and sustainable HIV care.