Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through its Office of Regulatory Affairs, awarded $750,000 under the FDA Research program (CFDA 93.103) to the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) effective September 22, 2025, with completion targeted for September 30, 2030. NEHA will develop and deliver a modern, sustainable training system supporting FDA's Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) to address workforce challenges in retail food safety regulation, including high turnover, workforce pipeline constraints, and evolving regulatory requirements. The organization will annually deliver more than 25 FDA-aligned competency-based courses through instructor-led, virtual, and hybrid formats, with full-service logistics support including instructor coordination, learning management system integration, technical facilitation, and post-course evaluation.

To ensure long-term sustainability and expanded reach, NEHA will recruit and mentor qualified instructors, strengthen the Partnership for Regulatory Education and Training (PRET) to enable state, local, tribal, and territorial professionals to deliver FDA courses within their jurisdictions, and conduct longitudinal retention studies to evaluate real-world training application. Course content will be continuously updated through collaboration with FDA and Content Advisory Groups using instructional systems design principles, reflecting emerging public health priorities, regulatory changes, and adult learning best practices to maintain relevance and impact across the food safety regulatory workforce.