Participant Research Innovation Laboratory for Enhancing WIC Services

The Recognizing & Addressing Maternal Warning Signs for Morbidity & Mortality During Pregnancy & the Postpartum Period grant opportunity provided $5,000,000 in funding, through a one-time cooperative agreement, to an external entity to administer a competitive subgrant program for WIC State and local agencies. Eligible external entities include accredited public and private institutions of higher education (colleges/universities), non-profit research entities, and other non-profit organizations. By the end of the cooperative agreement period of performance, the successful recipient of this RFA will accomplish four objectives: 1) Develop and share broadly a clear and concise analysis of evidence-based interventions, communications campaigns, and promising models for recognizing and addressing early warning signs of maternal morbidity and mortality that can be evaluated in diverse WIC settings and program delivery approaches. (“Review Evidence”); 2) Competitively select WIC State agencies (SAs) and/or Local agencies (LAs) to evaluate the implementation of evidence-based and promising well-designed interventions intended to identify and address early warning signs of maternal morbidity and mortality in a WIC setting. (“Subgrants”); 3) Provide technical assistance to subgrantees as they rigorously evaluate the interventions implemented by subgrantees, including a process evaluation and cost estimate. (“TA and Evaluation”); and 4) Develop and implement a framework to synthesize findings across subgrant studies and broadly disseminate findings. (“Dissemination”)