The fiscal year 2026 Emergency Medical and Trauma Services provider grant application opens in mid-December.
For the state fiscal year 2025, approximately $4.3 million was awarded to fund grant projects to maintain and improve Colorado’s emergency medical and trauma services system. Program rules and requirements are in the FY 2025 EMTS Funding Guide. All applicants must submit a recently updated organizational profile to apply for funding.
Funds are available on a reimbursement basis to organizations that provide EMS and trauma services as their primary purpose. This generally includes ambulance services, first response agencies, acute care medical facilities, fire agencies, rescue groups, communications centers, training centers, and other public or private emergency medical and trauma services providers in Colorado.
Application period
Provider grant and system improvement funding applications are accepted mid-December through Feb. 15 of each year. Applications are accepted via the EMTS ZoomGrants portal. Applicants must log into a new or existing ZoomGrants account to apply for funding.
Pre-application deadline
A complete pre-application must be submitted before midnight on Feb. 8, 2024. Once the pre-application is approved, the grant application will be made available to the applicant. Early submission of both the pre-application and grant application is strongly encouraged.
Important program dates
| Mid-December: | Provider and system improvement grant application period opens |
| January: | Educational grant workshops held |
| February 8: | Pre-application deadline |
| February 15: | Provider and system improvement grant application period closes |
| February 23: | Financial waiver review session |
| March - April: | Regional grant reviews are conducted - View review dates |
| May 9 and 10: | SEMTAC grant review sessions |
| June 30: | Public notice of grant awards announced |
Profile required
All agencies applying for EMTS funding must update and submit their EMTS organizational profile information form. An organization profile gatekeeper must be established to submit the profile information form. For more information, see the EMTS organization profiles page.
Contracting resources
If awarded funds, most grantees will be issued a statement of work that details the project specifics. The grantee will receive an executed purchase order after the signed statement of work is returned to the department. Projects funded for over $250,000 require a contract agreement.
If applying for funds, you should review the following documents first. These provisions and terms must be adhered to if funded for an EMTS grant award.
- Request for applications administrative information
- General and special provisions for contracts
- Purchase order terms and conditions
Match and reimbursement
If funded, provider grant awardees must provide matching funds. The standard match is 50% of the project cost. All items or services must be delivered to the grantee and paid in full to be eligible for reimbursement.
Financial waiver
A waiver to the standard 50% match is available. Applicants can apply for a reduced match of 40, 30, 20 or 10 percent.
Those who wish to apply for a financial waiver must answer additional questions and provide financial documents in the grant application. A financial waiver hearing is conducted to determine if the applicant will be granted the requested financial waiver. If an applicant applies and is denied the financial waiver, their application will not continue through the grant review process.
Application review
Applications are reviewed based on the criteria set in the EMTS funding program scoring tools found below.
Provider grant applications are reviewed and scored by a regional RETAC review committee and the statewide SEMTAC review committee. Scores from each review committee are averaged and combined to form a final grant application score.
System improvement grant applications are only reviewed by the SEMTAC during the April public policy and finance committee meeting.
Each of the 11 RETACs holds its application review in either March or April of each year. The SEMTAC provider grant application reviews take place in mid-May of each year.
Funding awards
Provider grant applications are ranked based on the combined final grant application score. Funding awards are based on the application rank relative to the total amount available to fund for that fiscal year. Approximately 4.2 million dollars were awarded in the fiscal year 2025.