Advancing Patient Safety Implementation through Safe Medication Use Research (R18) | PA 16 421

Opportunity Information: Apply for PA 16 421

Advancing Patient Safety Implementation through Safe Medication Use Research (R18) is a discretionary grant opportunity from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), listed under Funding Opportunity Number PA 16-421 and CFDA 93.226. The focus of this program is patient safety, specifically research that improves the safe use of medications and helps health care organizations implement evidence-based practices that reduce medication-related harm. As an R18 mechanism, the emphasis is typically on applied, real-world research and demonstration-style projects that test, refine, and spread practical approaches to improving safety in routine care settings rather than purely theoretical or laboratory work.

The opportunity sits squarely within AHRQ's broader mission: producing evidence that makes health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, more equitable, and more affordable, and then working with partners across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the health care system to make sure that evidence is actually understood and used. In other words, this funding is aimed at closing the gap between what is known to work in medication safety and what is consistently done in everyday clinical practice, with a strong implementation and uptake orientation.

Eligible applicants for this grant include state governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, and other Native American tribal organizations that are not themselves federally recognized tribal governments. This signals an intent to support public-sector and tribal-led efforts that can influence systems of care, policy environments, and large-scale delivery settings where medication safety interventions can have broad impact. The announcement is issued by AHRQ, a federal agency whose patient safety portfolio historically supports research on preventing avoidable harms, improving clinical processes, and strengthening the systems that help clinicians and patients use medications correctly.

Key administrative details provided in the source data include an original closing date of September 25, 2019, and a creation date of September 6, 2016. The award ceiling and expected number of awards are not specified in the excerpt, which usually means applicants would need to consult the full funding announcement for budget limits, project period expectations, and other program-specific requirements. The funding activity category is Health, and the instrument type is a grant, consistent with research and implementation projects that may involve multiple sites, stakeholder engagement, data collection, evaluation, and dissemination of findings.

Overall, this opportunity is designed for organizations positioned to lead medication safety improvement work at a systems level, producing evidence that is not only scientifically credible but also operationally usable. Projects supported under this type of program generally align with the idea that improving medication safety requires both good interventions and the practical know-how to implement them reliably across clinical workflows, health IT environments, and real-world constraints, so that reductions in adverse drug events and other medication-related harms can be sustained and scaled.

• The Agency for Health Care Research and Quality in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Advancing Patient Safety Implementation through Safe Medication Use Research (R18)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.226.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-09-06.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2019-09-25. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments).

Apply for PA 16 421

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