cdc-rfa-jg-26-0058_rev5_Final to post.pdf

Division of Global Health Protection

Notice of Funding Opportunity

Application due Monday, July 13, 2026

Enhancing global laboratory systems to safely manage biological risks, deploy diagnostics, and sequence pathogens to improve capacities for global health threat response and detection Opportunity number: CDC-RFA-JG-26-0058

Contents

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 4

Basic information 5

Eligibility 9

Agency priorities 12

Program description 15

Step 2: Get Ready to Apply 36

Get registered 37

Find the application package 38

Help applying 38

Step 3: Build Your Application 39

Application checklist 40

Application contents and format 42

Step 4: Understand Review, Selection, and Award 52

Application review 53

Award notices 55

Step 5: Submit Your Application 56

Submission and deadlines 57

Step 6: Learn What Happens After Award 59

Post-award requirements and administration 60

Contacts and Support 66

Before you begin 3

Contents 2

Before you begin If you believe you are a good candidate for this funding opportunity, secure your SAM.gov and Grants.gov registrations now. If you are already registered, make sure your registrations are active and up to date.

SAM.gov registration (this can take several weeks) You must have an active account with SAM.gov. This includes having a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).

See Step 2: Get Ready to Apply

Grants.gov registration (this can take several days) You must have an active Grants.gov registration. Doing so requires a Login.gov registration as well.

See Step 2: Get Ready to Apply

Apply by the application due date Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, July 13, 2026.

To help you find what you need, this NOFO uses internal links. In Adobe Reader, you can go back to where you were by pressing Alt + Left Arrow (Windows) or Command + Left Arrow (Mac) on your keyboard.

Before you begin 3 https://sam.gov/ https://grants.gov/

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1:

Review the Opportunity

In this step

Basic information 5

Eligibility 9

Agency priorities 12

Program description 15

Basic information Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Global Health Center

Division of Global Health Protection

Making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous by strengthening global health security through surveillance, prevention, and response with a focus on building safe and resilient laboratory systems.

Have questions?

See Contacts and Support.

Key facts

Opportunity name:

Enhancing global laboratory systems to safely manage biological risks, deploy diagnostics, and sequence pathogens to improve capacities for global health threat response and detection

Opportunity number:

CDC-RFA-JG-26-0058

NOFO version:

Original

Assistance listing:

93.318: Protecting and Improving Health Globally:

Building and Strengthening Public Health Impact, Systems, Capacity, and Security

Key dates

Application submission deadline:

July 13, 2026

Expected award and start date:

September 30, 2026

We will inform you of your application status by the end of August 2026.

Summary This NOFO aims to protect Americans from global health threats by focusing on five strategic areas:

• Strengthening public health laboratory systems and services across multiple levels to help create a cohesive network that supports robust public health initiatives.

• Making sure there’s consistent and reliable access to high-quality services around the world by improving essential laboratory quality management systems.

• Building a resilient and well-trained workforce, equipped with the skills to meet evolving health challenges.

• Identifying and managing biological risks to make sure public health laboratory operations are safe and reliable.

• Reinforcing laboratory preparedness so that Americans can be protected from widespread health threats by making sure that outbreak response is fast and effective.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 5

Funding details Funding Type: Cooperative agreement

Expected total NOFO funding for Year 1: $6,000,000 This is the expected total Year 1 funding for all awards made under this NOFO.

Expected awards: 2 – 3 The number of awards is subject to available funds and program priorities.

Exact amounts for each award under this NOFO will be determined upon award.

We plan to award projects for five 12-month budget periods for a five-year period of performance.

Funding strategy

Funding amounts We encourage you to apply for the expected total NOFO funding for Year 1 .

To align with the responsiveness criteria, if you request more than Year 1 funding amount (inclusive of all component ceilings) your application will not be considered for award.

Funding amounts for Years 2 through 5 will be set at continuation. We will continue funding based on:

• Availability of funds.

• Evidence of satisfactory progress, as documented in your required reports.

• The determination that continued funding is in the best interest of the federal government.

Component funding Overview

We fund all Global Health Security (GHS) cooperative agreements using component funding. You must apply for all components and include a budget and work plan for each. Note: For the purposes of this NOFO, component 1 is considered the core component, meaning it supports baseline GHS activities that are not dependent on emergency funding. This does not change the requirement that applicants apply for all components.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 6

Component funding allows us to provide funding as it becomes available. To do so, we fund sets of activities by project (such as emergency or routine), when necessary.

CDC may fund one or more of your components to start the budget period, and then consider other components based on available funding later. If we can’t yet fund your other components, we will designate the remaining components as “approved but unfunded.” This allows us to award more funding later. We include approved but unfunded components for public health emergencies in all awards. These components are funded when a disease outbreak or other public health emergency requires additional funding.

Component 1 are for activities related to core global health security priorities.

When funding is available, this NOFO will support activities for a moderate (component 2) or a substantial (component 3) response to a disease outbreak or other public health emergency.

The emergency components follow the same logic model, with identical overarching strategies and activities.

Setting up components

You must set up your components in your application. While preparing your application:

• Review the expectations for Year 1 activities in the strategies and activities section.

• Group your activities under the anticipated components. Only include the activities planned for Year 1.

• This NOFO is divided into three components. You must apply for all three components, including a clearly marked budget and work plan for each component as part of their application.

• For Component 1, Core Activities, you must propose work in multiple countries or region(s). In addition to Component 1, this NOFO supports additional activities when funding is made available for a moderate (Component 2) or substantial (Components 3) response to a disease outbreak or other public health emergency.

• Budgets and work plans for Components 2 and 3 must propose appropriately scaled responses in a relevant region. The same logic model applies for all components. If you are not initially selected for our core Component 1, an internal approved but unfunded (ABU) roster will be populated and be eligible for awards in the event of a public health

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 7 emergency, dependent on availability of funds. If this is applicable, CDC will reach out to you.

• Applications are not complete without a budget, budget narrative, technical/project narrative, and workplan for each component included as part of the main application (not appendices). Within the application, applicants should clearly indicate which countries or regions they are applying to.

◦ Component 1: Core Global Health Security priorities

▪ Component 1 Ceiling: $2,000,000

◦ Component 2: Rapid, small-scale response to infectious disease outbreaks or other public health emergencies

▪ Component 2 Ceiling: $3,000,000

◦ Component 3: Rapid, large-scale response to infectious disease outbreaks or other public health emergencies

▪ Component 3 Ceiling: $4,500,000

• For information on how to incorporate component funding into your application, see the following sections:

◦ Budget narrative

◦ Component funding instructions for SF-424A

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 8

Eligibility Statutory authority This program is authorized under:

• Section 307 of the Public Health Service Act [42 USC 242l].

• Section 301(a) [42 USC 241(a)] of the Public Health Service Act.

Eligible applicants Only these types of organizations may apply.

• State governments.

• County governments.

• City or township governments.

• Special district governments.

• Independent school districts.

• Public and state-controlled institutions of higher education.

• Native American tribal governments (federally recognized).

• Public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities.

• Native American tribal organizations, other than federally recognized tribal governments.

• Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status, other than institutions of higher education.

• Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) status, other than institutions of higher education.

• Private institutions of higher education.

• For-profit organizations other than small businesses.

• Small businesses.

• Foreign or non-U.S. based entities.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 9

Other required qualifying factors

Delivery location You must conduct the project in the following countries/regions as described below:

While applicants can submit applications supporting Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) activities in any country, applicants are encouraged to submit applications aligning with the objectives of this NOFO with a focus on following regions and countries:

• Eastern Europe/Central Asia (EECA): Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine

• Middle East/North Africa (MENA): Bahrain, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia

• South America (SAM): Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru

• Southeast Asia (SEA): Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam

• Central American and Caribbean (CAC): Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haití, Jamaica, Panama

• East Asia/Pacific: China, Philippines

• West Africa (WA): Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone

• Central & East Africa (CEA): Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

• Southern Africa Region (SA): Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia

Responsiveness criteria We will review your application to make sure it meets these requirements.

These are the basic requirements you must meet to move forward in the competition. We won’t consider an application that:

• Is from an organization that doesn’t meet all eligibility criteria. See requirements in Eligibility.

• Is submitted after the deadline.

• Proposes research activities. See the definition of research.

• Requests more funding than the expected total NOFO funding for Year 1 (inclusive of all component ceilings).

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 10 https://www.cdc.gov/grants/additional-requirements/ar-31.html

• Exceeds the 60-page limit for the project narrative (see the Project narrative section for what counts toward the page limit).

• Does not include all components.

• Is not in English.

• Includes a budget or budget narrative that uses a currency other than U.S. dollars.

• Does not respond to or is outside the scope of this NOFO.

See the Application checklist to understand which elements of your application are part of the responsiveness criteria.

Application limits You must follow these limits on the number of applications your organization can submit.

Under this NOFO, you may submit only one application under your organization’s UEI.

Cost sharing and matching funds This program has no cost-sharing or matching funds requirement. We will not consider cost-sharing fund contributions during your application review.

However, if you submit voluntary cost-sharing funds and we fund your project, we will require you to report on these funds.

Post-award requirements Before you apply, make sure you understand the requirements that come with an award.

See Step 6: Learn What Happens After Award for information on regulations that apply, reporting, and more.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 11

Agency priorities Required alignment with CDC priorities The recipient of this award must implement any funds awarded under this NOFO to effectuate program goals or agency priorities in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Priorities when authorized (for a full description of the CDC Priorities please follow the provided hyperlink).

Funded activities must:

• Align with CDC’s core priorities by demonstrating a commitment to gold-standard science, transparency, and evidence-based practices.

• Support CDC’s mission to protect Americans from infectious and chronic diseases, strengthen public health systems, and advance innovation in health data and infrastructure.

• Contribute to rapid, science-driven responses to health threats, promote global health leadership, and adhere to principles of integrity, accountability, and compliance with applicable laws and federal priorities.

Consistent with CDC’s values, in carrying out any project funded under this NOFO, the recipient must adhere to the following principles where consistent with the authority and scope of the award and its activities:

• A commitment to gold-standard science and ensuring trust, transparency, and credibility: To build trust and improve CDC’s ability to lead during health crises, CDC will increase transparency, be more accountable, and follow strict, gold-standard scientific practices that are open, unbiased, and based on clear evidence.

• A commitment to global leadership: With staff in 63 countries and supporting 20 more, CDC’s Global Health Center:

• Works to prevent disease and advance emergency response.

• Detects health threats early, sends response teams, trains health workers, and provides personal protective equipment, vaccines, and medicines.

• Tests disease samples from around the world to prepare for flu and other serious outbreaks.

• Has strengthened systems to better protect people at home and abroad after the COVID-19 outbreak.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 12 https://www.cdc.gov/about/cdc/index.html

• A commitment to ensuring rapid, evidence-based responses to crises:

During public health emergencies, ensuring rapid, science-driven responses is critical to minimizing harm, maintaining public trust, and restoring stability. To meet this goal, CDC must continue to strengthen its emergency response systems by:

◦ Streamlining internal processes.

◦ Improving risk communication strategies.

◦ Ensuring that laboratory capacity is fully equipped and tested—capable of rapidly developing and deploying scalable diagnostics during crises.

◦ Embedding structures for real-time learning, independent after-action reviews, and the application of lessons learned will ensure that each crisis response is smarter, faster, and more effective than the last.

• A commitment to vaccine safety and efficacy research: CDC will apply “gold-standard” science to all of its vaccine safety and effectiveness research. It will make vaccine data, research methods, and related datasets publicly available through simple data use agreements to improve transparency, accountability, and trust.

• A commitment to advancing our understanding of the causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), and chronic disease: CDC conducts research and works with partners to better understand the causes of autism spectrum disorder, neurodevelopmental disorders, and chronic diseases. It will use new and existing data to study the rise in these conditions, including the increase in autism diagnoses from 1 in 150 to nearly 1 in 31 over the past 25 years.

• A commitment to modernizing public health infrastructure and enhancing our approach to health data: CDC will modernize public health infrastructure to create a faster, more efficient health system that can detect and respond to outbreaks in real time. This effort includes:

◦ Replacing data silos with integrated systems.

◦ Using advanced technology.

◦ Strengthening partnerships with states to ensure shared responsibility and strong local health data systems.

◦ Emphasizing collaboration across federal and state partners, resilient and adaptable systems, and accountability for funded programs to ensure they align with these priorities and federal requirements.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 13

• Conflicts of interest: CDC will not support funding programs with conflicts of interest and ensure its work is based on transparent, unbiased science.

• Immigration: CDC funds will not be used to support or encourage illegal immigration, consistent with federal law.

• Protecting life and the family: CDC funds will not be used to support elective abortions, consistent with the Hyde Amendment, and will promote maternal health, the dignity of life, and strong families.

• Ending disorder on America’s streets: CDC will prioritize evidence-based programs that reduce homelessness, drug use, and public disorder. It will support comprehensive services for people with serious mental illness and substance use disorder. CDC will not support housing first strategies, harm-reduction or safe consumption sites, or related activities. To the extent allowable by federal law, CDC intends to give priority to grantees in States and municipalities that have laws and policies that support and enforce CDC’s priorities.

• Gender ideology and protecting children [PDF]: CDC will not fund medical interventions for minors seeking gender transition and will define sex based on biological criteria.

• DEI: CDC will not support DEI initiatives based on group identity and focus on merit-based, evidence-driven approaches to improve health outcomes.

• Parental rights: CDC will support policies that protect parental authority, promote transparency, and give parents greater control over their children’s education.

The recipient must demonstrate ongoing compliance with the full description and listing of CDC values and priorities, in all programs that are authorized to advance them, through program design, implementation, reporting, and evaluation.

Failure to meaningfully align funded activities with the applicable requirements may result in corrective action, additional reporting requirements, or other enforcement actions consistent with federal grant regulations found at 2 CFR Part 200 and the terms and conditions of this award. The full CDC Priorities Statement can be found here: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Priorities.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 14 https://opa.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-11/gender-dysphoria-report.pdf

Program description Background, overview, and related work The problem Recent and emerging global health threats like COVID-19 and Monkeypox emphasize the risk and preventability of pathogen spillover to humans, and the importance of a multisector approach to making laboratory systems stronger. Laboratory data, information exchange between human and animal health, and multidisciplinary workforce development can help speed up disease detection, advance pathogen characterization, and protect Americans from global health threats.

The approach Guided by the 2025 America First Global Health Strategy, these problems can be addressed by quickly detecting and reporting outbreaks, with accuracy and transparency. This type of effective response effort will also limit the spread of disease in humans and animals, reduce suffering, save lives, and minimize economic impact

Rationale Laboratories can consider tools such as the 7-1-7 global target to measure the timeliness of detection (within 7 days from emergence), notification (within 1 day from detection), and response (within 7 days from notification). This framework, and others like it, that measure the timeliness of detection, improve our global capacity to contain and address health threats at their earliest stage.

Desired outcomes The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) envisions a future where all Americans feel safe from global health threats, especially when it’s possible to prevent or manage the impact of new and recurring pathogens.

Past efforts, achievements, and challenges The U.S. Government (USG) has advanced global health by partnering with laboratory stakeholders to improve public health safety and security and strengthen the capabilities of laboratory systems. Other accomplishments

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 15 https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/09/america-first-global-health-strategy https://resolvetosavelives.org/how-we-save-lives/epidemic-prevention/7-1-7/ include developing laboratory leadership and integrating key strategic public health programs.

The preceding NOFO, “Global Health Security Partnerships: Expanding and Improving Public Health Laboratory Strategies and Systems“ (CDC-RFA- GH20-2109) aimed to work with global laboratory partners to strengthen laboratory systems, support compliance with international frameworks, and help countries address the global health security gaps identified in their Joint External Evaluation (JEE) results as guided by the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).

Despite all of these achievements, there are still plenty of challenges that weaken a tiered laboratory system. Some of these challenges include:

• A lack of national policy and strategy.

• Limited funding.

• Poor infrastructure.

• Outdated equipment.

• Shortages of essential supplies.

• Weak bio-risk management.

• Insufficient training and mentoring for laboratory staff.

Some countries are continuing to identify gaps that need to be addressed in their laboratory systems, so they can detect, respond, confirm, and report infectious disease threats while continuing to progress toward GHSA frameworks. Every threat to global public health reminds us that we must strengthen our collective action and responsibility for epidemic preparedness.

Public health priorities and strategies Your funded activities must also align with CDC’s global health priorities.

These priorities guide how we build, carry out, and evaluate our global health work. We use it to measure progress and impact and make informed decisions about global health activities across CDC. The goals include:

• Stop health threats at their source before they spread to the United States and other countries.

• Contain disruptive outbreaks of disease across the globe.

• Use global data to prevent and mitigate disease in the United States and other countries.

• Save lives and improve health globally.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 16 https://www.who.int/emergencies/operations/international-health-regulations-monitoring-evaluation-framework/joint-external-evaluations https://www.who.int/emergencies/operations/international-health-regulations-monitoring-evaluation-framework/joint-external-evaluations https://globalhealthsecurityagenda.org/ https://globalhealthsecurityagenda.org/

To make progress on these goals, we encourage you to:

• Strengthen national public health bulletins, health alert notices, CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and Health Alert Network, and other emergency risk communication strategies.

• Share timely, credible, useful public health information with healthcare and public health professionals locally and nationally within our partner countries.

• Develop civil registration, vital statistics systems, and mortality surveillance systems so our partner countries know what is causing deaths in their population and whether interventions to reduce them are working.

• Additionally, the effectiveness of your work should be demonstrated in results from timeliness analyses (like the 7-1-7 framework) for early detection and response. For example, the 7-1-7 target provides a standardized benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of outbreak detection and response systems globally. The framework outlines a timeline to aim for in response to a suspected outbreak:

◦ Within 7 days of emergency: Detect the outbreak.

◦ Within 1 day of detection: Notify public health authorities and start the investigation.

◦ Within 7 days of notification: Begin responding effectively to the emergency.

We also recommend using these supporting strategies and frameworks:

• CDC’s strategy for improving GHS, based on three core parts of the agency’s mission to protect public health worldwide:

◦ Prevent.

◦ Detect.

◦ Respond.

• Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) framework.

• The Department of State America First Global Health Strategy.

• United States Global Health Security Strategy.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 17 https://www.cdc.gov/global-health/topics-programs/global-health-security.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/security/index.htm https://globalhealthsecurityagenda.org/ https://www.state.gov/america-first-global-health-strategy/ https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/09/america-first-global-health-strategy

Purpose The purpose of this NOFO is to protect Americans from global health threats by strengthening global laboratories across multiple sectors so they can quickly and safely detect, prevent, and contain health threats. This will be done by improving laboratory systems, quality management, training staff, managing biological risks, and preparing for emergencies so outbreaks are found, responded to, and reported faster.

Approach Program logic model The following logic model includes the expected strategies under this NOFO.

The logic model also includes the program’s expected outcomes. Outcomes are the results that you intend to achieve and usually show the intended direction of change, such as increase or decrease.

The asterisked (*) outcomes are those we expect you to achieve or substantially contribute to during the five-year period of performance. You must report on these outcomes.

Not all outcomes apply to all strategies. The table shows how they apply. You will use these outcomes as a guide for developing performance measures.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 18

Table: Strategies and outcomes

Strategies and activities Short-term outcomes Intermediate outcomes Long-term outcomes

Strategy 1:

Strengthen public health laboratory systems and services at multiple levels within the network.

Improved knowledge of systematic gaps and needs in diagnostics, bioinformatics, and genomic surveillance of national reference, provincial, and district laboratories.*

Improved structure of the laboratory system and data sharing across a multisectoral laboratory network.*

Greater standardization of diagnostic strategies defining roles and capacities at each laboratory tier for harmonized laboratory system function.*

Increased reliability of specimen referral and transport networks for faster diagnostic testing of priority diseases.*

Improved real-time bio-surveillance with a national laboratory system and effective modern point-of-care and laboratory-based diagnostics.

Increased geographic coverage and specimen referral capacity to ensure complete diagnostic services in the tiered network.

Strategy 2:

Improve laboratory quality management systems to ensure the delivery of high-quality services.

Greater adoption of national programs and policies for laboratory quality management and standards.*

The country has improved participation in national and international quality assurance program and proficiency testing.*

Increased laboratory programs working towards national accreditation or alignment with international accreditation standards.*

Improved access to quality laboratory reagents and consumables.

Improved information systems for data collection and real time reporting.*

Improved multisectoral collaboration among laboratory systems.*

Established and reliable national program for process and quality improvements that ensure continuity of laboratory services and information management to inform public health decision-making.*

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 19 activities Short-term outcomes Intermediate outcomes Long-term outcomes

Strategy 3:

Develop a robust, skilled, and resilient public health laboratory workforce to respond to future outbreaks and health emergencies.

Increased engagement and implementation of the multi-sectoral Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP) for laboratory leaders.*

Improved laboratory workforce skills to use modern, safe, secure, affordable, and appropriate diagnostic tests across laboratory tiered-level network.*

The country has improved strategies to sustain and take ownership of GLLP and other workforce training programs.

Enhanced access to updated laboratory training materials for the network.*

Improved national laboratory workforce capable of leading and supporting a national laboratory network, and available to respond to public health threats.*

Increased multisectoral coordination and communication to improve surveillance and response efforts and increase data sharing and data use.

Strategy 4:

Identify and mitigate biological risks to ensure the safety and integrity of public health laboratory operations.

Improved biorisk landscape analysis to strengthen national and subnational laboratory biosafety and biosecurity practices.*

Improved biorisk training programs, materials, and protocols to establish a culture of safety.*

Improved biosafety and biosecurity systems to protect workers, the environment, and track lab incidents.*

Sustained biorisk mitigation and management through established national policies, legal framework, and strategy.

Improved compliance with international biosafety and biosecurity standards per WHO Biorisk management strategy.*

Strategy 5:

Reinforce emergency laboratory preparedness and response to quickly detect, identify, and report outbreak pathogens.

Strengthened non-outbreak related clinical laboratory services to maintain continuity of the system.*

Improved access to laboratory health services in outbreak areas to expedite detection, confirmation, and reporting.

Sustained improvements in laboratory health services that reduce turnaround times for detection and reporting toward 7-1-7 targets.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 20 activities Short-term outcomes Intermediate outcomes Long-term outcomes

Improved forecasting and distribution of essential laboratory commodities in the field to rapidly detect, identify, and contain an outbreak.*

Improved national strategies for early warning, and management of health risks.*

Improved laboratory preparedness for potential future outbreaks and timely recognition of and response to the emergence or reemergence of other highly infectious diseases.

Strategies and activities This section elaborates on the strategies described in the logic model by providing expected activities for Year 1 and details about how we expect you to implement your program.

Following are potential activities for each strategy of this NOFO. You may also propose additional related strategies and activities to achieve the expected outcomes and consult resources like the 2025 America First Global Health Strategy, Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), Joint External Evaluation (JEE) results, and the 7-1-7 Early Disease Detection Framework.

Strategy 1: Strengthen public health laboratory systems and services at multiple levels within the network.

• Assess and map the capacity and referral networks of national, provincial, and district laboratories using standard or updated tools.

• Incorporate lessons learned from outbreak preparedness and response efforts.

• Develop, update and distribute national laboratory policies, 5-year strategic plan, and an implementation plan.

• Take testing strategies for outbreaks and public health emergencies into account.

• Identify national laboratory system focal point and define national laboratory tiered service structures.

• Develop (or revise) standard laboratory operating procedures that define the roles of each tier of the public health laboratory network.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 21 https://globalhealthsecurityagenda.org/ https://www.who.int/emergencies/operations/international-health-regulations-monitoring-evaluation-framework/joint-external-evaluations https://resolvetosavelives.org/prevent-epidemics/7-1-7-early-disease-detection/

• Enhance diagnostic capacity including rapid tests/point-of-care (POC) for low resource settings and lower-level tiers to support national priorities for surveillance.

• Support countries to develop or enhance core sequencing capacities for pathogens of pandemic potential to be an integral part of routine genomic surveillance and outbreak response.

• Assess bioinformatics capacity within the sequencing core facilities for routine surveillance. Guide the development of sustainable sequencing and bioinformatics capacities.

• Improve laboratory data management and genomic data sharing on public sequence repositories, such as GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) and GenBank. Prompt metadata collection and privacy standards for sufficient information needed for public health decision making.

Strategy 2: Improve laboratory quality management systems to ensure the delivery of high-quality services.

• Improve participation in national and international quality assurance programs and proficiency testing.

• Increase teamwork among human and animal laboratory systems.

• Support the implementation of established accreditation frameworks for laboratory diagnostics to assist in developing sustainable and effective laboratory diagnostics and genomic capacities.

Strategy 3: Develop a robust, skilled, and resilient public health laboratory workforce to respond to future outbreaks and health emergencies.

• Implement the Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP) in coordination with CDC headquarters, and country or regional offices.

• Assist in the development of the GLLP community of practice (CoP) according to GLLP CoP guidance.

• Develop GLLP monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for the evaluation and continuous improvement of GLLP program implementation according to GLLP M&E guidance document.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 22

• Train laboratory technicians in microbiology and molecular methods, specimen collection and referral, and biosafety standard operating procedures.

• Assist in the development of national standards for laboratories at all tiers.

Strategy 4: Identify and mitigate biological risks to ensure the safety and integrity of our public health laboratory operations.

• Develop or adapt biorisk assessment tools for each tiered level of the laboratory network.

• Establish the biorisk landscapes across the laboratory network.

• Support countries with the development of specimen and pathogens inventory as well as management systems.

• Establish systems to maintain facilities and equipment for biorisk control measures.

• Support countries with the development of a comprehensive national biosafety and biosecurity regulatory framework.

• Establish a national training program for biorisk management with consideration of the development or adaption of the training materials and protocols for each tiered level of the laboratory network.

• Train laboratorians in appropriate handling, storage, and disposal of biohazardous materials.

• Create standardized practices for safe and secure specimen collection, referral, management, and transport.

• Develop standardized practices and guidelines for infectious waste management.

Strategy 5: Reinforce emergency laboratory preparedness and response to quicky detect, identify, and report outbreak pathogens.

• Efforts to incorporate targeted sequencing or metagenomic sequencing capacity.

• Develop plans to mobilize laboratory services and personnel during a public health incident.

• Implement outbreak testing and reporting capacities.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 23

• Support countries to develop national strategies in how to manage surge testing capacity and maintain essential non-outbreak related public health activities impacted by the outbreak.

• Create timely procurement mechanisms for essential reagents and laboratory consumables needed in the field for outbreak response efforts.

• Establish laboratory surge capacity during outbreak response to highly infectious diseases.

We expect you to provide copies of and/or access to all data, software, tools, training materials, guidelines, and systems you develop under this NOFO to the Ministry of Health, CDC, and other relevant stakeholders for appropriate use consistent with underlying authorities.

Related guidance Your activities under this project should follow CDC’s global health priorities.

You might also be asked to follow other strategies, guidance, or planning documents that are released later.

Geographic focus If the program or GHS priorities change during the period of performance, you may be asked to change the geographic area of your activities.

Outcomes We expect you to achieve or substantially contribute to the outcomes asterisked ( * ) in the logic model by the end of the five-year period of performance. You will be expected to report on these outcomes.

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 24

Organizational capacity You must include a heading in your project narrative titled “Organizational capacity.” In this section, briefly describe your organizational capacity to carry out these strategies and activities.

You must also provide supporting documentation in your attachments. See the attachments section for full instructions.

Collaborations If funded, we will expect you to collaborate with:

• Other CDC Operating Units (OUs):

◦ In addition to the Center for Global Health/Division of Global Health Protection, you may be working with other CDC OUs such as the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and the Office of Readiness and Response.

• CDC-funded organizations:

◦ You will work with other recipients funded by CDC including non-governmental organizations, universities, Ministries of Health (MOH), other host governmental bodies and multi-lateral organizations that receive CDC funds to make sure that activities already implemented by other CDC-funded organizations are complementary and not redundant.

◦ Other recipients awarded under this NOFO.

◦ Post award, you will provide Memoranda of Understanding or Memoranda of Agreement, as appropriate, in support of collaborations with MOH and other governmental bodies.

• Organizations not funded by CDC:

◦ You will work primarily and directly with partner governments specifically with the MOH and other government entities who are working towards the objectives of this NOFO. In addition, you will be expected to work with other stakeholders in country and at the global level including other USG agencies, other government entities, non-governmental organizations, universities, civil society, and the private sector.

◦ You will collaborate with other global health security partners and programs that are working toward the objectives of this NOFO. We will assist you in identifying and connecting with other partners

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 25 working in this area. You must ensure that work is not duplicative but complementary and supports existing efforts funded by CDC and the rest of USG.

◦ Some but not all the potential USG collaborators on specific strategies are listed below:

▪ Comprehensive National Biosafety and Biosecurity System. You may collaborate and coordinate efforts with the Department of Defense Cooperative Biological Engagement Program and the Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program.

◦ Prevent the spread and emergence of antimicrobial resistance and zoonotic diseases. You may collaborate and coordinate efforts with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

◦ Laboratory Workforce Development, such as the Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP). You may collaborate and coordinate with the six founding partners of the GLLP (FAO, WOAH, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), CDC, Association of Public Health Laboratories), Ministries of Health, and other organizations.

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Data, monitoring, and evaluation CDC strategy CDC collects and reports on indicators to measure progress toward achieving the activities and outcomes. CDC will also use results for program planning, improvement, accountability, and reporting. CDC will share the results with key parties.

CDC will work with you throughout the life of this award to ensure that all activities and expected outcomes align with your strategies and goals, and those of the U.S. government.

Your strategies and goals will be monitored and evaluated. You should dedicate some of the NOFO’s funds to evaluate and monitor the performance of your project. You and CDC will agree on the final funding amount, but we expect that you will dedicate approximately 5 to 10% of your project’s funding to monitoring, reporting, and evaluation activities.

Required performance measures While completing your work plan, identify indicators within the partner-level indicator list that best align with your proposed activities for each component.

You can find the separate list within the application package on grants.gov.

These indicators are your performance measures. You will also include these indicators in your initial evaluation and performance measurement plan (EPMP). If awarded, we will work with you to finalize the partner-level indicators that will best measure your funded strategies and activities. We will provide a more detailed description of the indicators when you are awarded.

You will report on your performance measures in the annual progress report.

While you will be responsible for reporting on your partner-level indicators, you can use additional indicators to assess your program. You’re encouraged to, propose additional relevant indicators that you will monitor over the course of the project.

Evaluation and performance measurement plan You must submit an initial draft of your EPMP plan with your application. In your EPMP, you will identify which of the partner-level indicators you plan to report on in your annual performance report). These indicators will be finalized with CDC.

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You must submit a more detailed plan within the first six months of the award. See Reporting.

Be sure to align your EPMP with host country, agency, and program requirements and priorities.

Include the following elements in your evaluation and performance measurement plan.

Methods Describe how you will:

• Collect the performance measures.

• Respond to the evaluation topics.

• Use evaluation findings for continuous program quality improvement.

• Incorporate evaluation and performance measurement into planning, implementing, and reporting project activities.

Additionally, explain:

• How key program partners will participate in the evaluation and performance measurement process.

• How feasible it will be to collect appropriate evaluation and performance data.

• How you will share evaluation findings with communities and stakeholders.

• Other relevant information, such as performance measures you propose.

Data management plan For all public health data you plan to collect, you must have a data management plan (DMP). For a definition of “public health data” and more information about CDC’s policy on the DMP, see Data Management and Access.

You must submit an initial draft of your DMP with your application. You will submit a more detailed plan within the first six months of the award.

See Reporting.

Submit your DMP with your application and include:

• The data you will collect or generate, and what its sources will be.

• Who can access the data and how you will protect and secure it.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 28 https://www.cdc.gov/grants/additional-requirements/ar-25.html https://www.cdc.gov/grants/additional-requirements/ar-25.html

• Data standards that explain what documentation the released data will have. Documentation should describe collection methods, what the data represents, and data limitations.

• Archival and long-term data preservation plans.

• Any reasons why you cannot share data collected or generated under this award with CDC. These could include legal, regulatory, policy, or technical reasons.

• How you will update the DMP as new information becomes available over the life of the project. You will provide updates to the DMP in annual reports.

In addition to the other requirements listed, also include:

• Cybersecurity plans.

• How you will protect personally identifiable information (PII) when you collect, store, transfer, and use this data.

• How you will remove information from the data that could reveal participants’ identities (de-identify the data) in intermediate and final data sets.

CDC will inform you of data you need to share with us and how and when it should be shared.

Evaluation activities You must carry out at least one evaluation for each cooperative agreement during your funding. The evaluation can be one of these:

• A process evaluation, which measures:

◦ How you delivered the services.

◦ What worked and what did not.

◦ The differences between who you intended to serve and who you actually served.

◦ Who could access your services.

• An outcome evaluation, which measures how the intervention affected changes in knowledge, attitudes, or behavior.

• An economic evaluation, which measures:

◦ How much the intervention cost.

◦ What caused these costs.

◦ Cost effectiveness.

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◦ Efficiency.

◦ The economic impact of the intervention.

Describe:

• The type of evaluations (process, outcome, and/or economic).

• Key evaluation questions these evaluations will address.

• Other information, such as measures and data sources.

Work plan You must provide a work plan for each component for your project. For each component, provide a detailed work plan for the first year and a high-level work plan for later years. The work plan connects your performance outcomes, strategies and activities, and measures. It provides more detail on how you will measure outcomes and processes. A sample work plan is provided below.

Table: Sample format

Activities you will implement

Progress or process measures

From the Data, monitoring, and evaluation section.

Relevant period of performance outcomes

From the Outcomes section.

Responsible position or party

Completion date

Strategy 1:

1.

2.

3.

Strategy 2:

1.

2.

3.

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Paperwork Reduction Act Any activities involving information collection from 10 or more individuals or organizations may require Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) approval. The PRA requires review and approval of the information collection by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). For further information to determine if a proposed activity requires PRA approval, contact your project officer.

Collections include items like surveys and questionnaires. If you have collections requiring PRA approval, CDC is responsible for working with OMB to gain the approval.

For more information about CDC’s requirements under PRA see CDC Paperwork Reduction Act Compliance.

Dissemination of evaluation results By the end of the period of performance, your evaluation and performance measures will yield findings to demonstrate the value of your projects. You will disseminate these findings through the Annual Performance Report (APR).

You are expected to pursue additional dissemination in public domains and through informal channels. Dissemination channels could include:

• Local and international conferences and forum abstract presentations.

• Conference poster displays.

• Public health and global health journals.

• Manuscripts.

• Bulletins.

• Reports.

• Presentations to technical working groups and stakeholder meetings.

• Other approved products in print and electronic media, including websites and newsletters.

Program interest holders will be the primary intended users of your evaluation results and findings.

CDC and interest holders will use your evaluation findings during the five-year project period to share and implement key recommendations to strengthen program implementation, effectiveness, sustainability, and continued improvement after the award ends.

1. Review 2. Get Ready 3. Build 4. Understand 5. Submit 6. Award Contacts

Step 1: Review the Opportunity 31 https://www.cdc.gov/scientific-integrity/php/public-information-collection/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/os/integrity/reducepublicburden/index.htm#cdc_data_surveillance_section_1-cdc-paperwork-reduction-act-compliance https://www.cdc.gov/scientific-integrity/php/public-information-collection/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/os/integrity/reducepublicburden/index.htm#cdc_data_surveillance_section_1-cdc-paperwork-reduction-act-compliance

Funding policies and limitations Changes in HHS regulations As of October 1, 2025, HHS adopted 2 CFR 200, with some exceptions included in 2 CFR 300. These regulations replace those in 45 CFR 75. You can find details in HHS Summary of Regulatory Changes, which is posted in the Grants.gov Related Documents tab for this opportunity.

General guidance All activities proposed in your application and…