National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a civilian agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, awards cooperative agreements to fund public health research, disease prevention, and health promotion work across state, local, and nonprofit organizations. The CDC is the federal government's principal civilian epidemiology and communicable-disease agency.

The CDC has obligated $1.33 billion in federal grant funding across 421 cooperative agreement awards since 2010, working with 163 distinct recipients. Recent award cadence has been uneven: 25 awards in 2021, 11 in 2022, 57 in 2023, 22 in 2024, and 1 year-to-date in 2026, with the most recent award issued on September 30, 2026. All CDC grant awards are structured as cooperative agreements, reflecting the agency's requirement for collaborative oversight and technical assistance in public health initiatives.

Grant recipient concentration is highly fragmented. Over the last five years, the top five recipients by award count account for only 15 percent of recent awards. University of Utah leads by award count with 5 awards totaling $24.1 million in federal dollars obligated, followed by Minnesota Department of Health with 3 awards ($10.3 million) and American Academy of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and The Washington University each with 2 awards. By federal dollars obligated, the top five recipients account for only 6 percent of recent spending, with University of Utah again leading at $24.1 million, followed by Regents of the University of Minnesota ($16 million), The Washington University ($15.6 million), University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences ($13.8 million), and American Academy of Pediatrics ($12.2 million). The long tail of 158 other recipients holds the vast majority of the CDC's grant portfolio, indicating substantial competition and opportunity across the recipient base.

No recent grant opportunities are recorded against the CDC in the source data. Firms pursuing CDC funding should track the agency's website directly for notices of funding opportunity posted against specific public health, disease prevention, or epidemiology programs.