OE20-2001 Project Plan Template_WFD Pipeline Supplement_06.09.21_FINAL.docx

Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services (CSELS) Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS)

CDC-RFA-OE20 -2001: Enhancing Public Health Laboratory Capabilities and Increasing Capacity

New Focus Area Project Plan Template

SECTION 1: GENERAL INFORMATION

Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)

Workforce Development

$27,100,000

American Rescue Plan

Expanding the Public Health Laboratory Workforce Pipeline

Renee Ned-Sykes

rin1@cdc.gov

404-498-0125

Yescenia Wilkins

exq6@cdc.gov

404.639.8760

SECTION 2: PROJECT SUMMARY

2.1 – Project Description

Project Status: Select whether your project/activity is an entirely new project or an extension of an existing project:

☒New CIO Project/Activity ☐ CIO Existing Project/Activity (Expansion/Change of Scope)

Project Description: Provide a description of the project including a justification for the project’s bona fide need in the space below:

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of public health laboratories (PHL) and PHL staff while exacerbating ongoing workforce development challenges, including staffing shortages resulting from an aging workforce, high turnover, increasing complexity of skills needed as technology advances, decreases in clinical laboratory science education programs, increasing demand for laboratory services, low awareness of the profession among the public, and competition from the private sector. This project’s aim is to strengthen the pipeline of PHL professionals, and thus, strengthen everyday PHL practice as well as emergency preparedness and response by:

(1) establishing a National Public Health Laboratory Fellowship Program that will strengthen and expand existing CDC-APHL public health laboratory fellowships and (2) developing and implementing a new public health internship program for eligible undergraduate students to gain meaningful experiences in public health laboratory settings.

Activities: Describe activities to be carried out in this project as well as their associated deliverables:

Establish a National Public Health Laboratory Program by expanding the existing APHL-CDC Fellowship Program to support an increased number of bachelor and/or master’s-level fellows for 1-year experiences in a PHL setting. Options could be among the different existing fellowship “tracks” (e.g., infectious disease, environmental sciences, newborn screening, bioinformatics) or new “tracks.” For existing tracks, the grantee is expected to:

Build on existing infrastructure to promote the program; receive, review, interview, and select applicants; perform matching and onboarding; support fellow stipends, travel, health insurance, and other costs (as appropriate); and monitor and track fellowship progress and experiences Establish core competencies and curricula Assess if changes to program goals, scope, or structure is needed Implement changes to program goals, scope, and/or structure Develop training resources Develop resources to support host sites If new “track(s)” are proposed, the grantee also must determine program goals and eligibility for fellows and host sites.

Short-term internships (e.g., 12 weeks) for undergraduate students to gain meaningful experiences in PHL settings. The program would expose students to the public health laboratory field, reveal potential careers in public health, and give students an applied learning experience in a state, local, or territorial public health laboratory. The grantee is expected to:

Determine program eligibility for students and host sites Define program goals, competencies, and learning activities Develop resources to support learning goals and activities Develop resources to support host sites Create or build on existing infrastructure to promote the program; receive, review, and select applicants; match interns to host labs; perform onboarding, support intern stipends and other costs (as appropriate); and monitor and track internship experiences

For both programs, the grantee should also establish:

an overall strategic plan for this Pipeline project a program evaluation plan one or more steering committees to guide the programs

To aid informing these and related workforce development efforts, the grantee is also expected to Establish a workforce development research plan that expands upon current workforce survey activities

2.2 – Project Strategy and Outcomes

☐S2. Policy, Partnership and Communication ☒S3. Training and Capacity Building ☐S4. Laboratory Quality, Safety and Informatics for Public Health Testing Services, Surveillance and Response

For this Project: Select the outcomes that the project will contribute towards Please check and select responses for all applicable boxes below.

POs and IOs Proposed for this Project

SECTION 3: PROPOSED BUDGET

Instructions for Use of funds: Provide any restrictions or instructions for applicant use of funds, as applicable:

Funding for Year 2 of the coAg = $27,014,654

Funds can be used for:

APHL staff and fringe Indirect costs intern stipends and other costs (as determined in collaboration with CDC/DLS) fellow stipends, health insurance, travel, and professional development host laboratory resources and supplies consultants or contractors

The recipient may want to consider dedicating considerable staff and/or staff time to support program infrastructure/management, content, and resource development (e.g., instructional designers, education specialists), and monitoring and evaluation. The workforce development research component may also necessitate additional staff to support workforce surveys and related efforts.

SECTION 4: ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Reviewers’ feedback on additional considerations (if any):

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