Education and Outreach to Tribal Producers through the Tribal Food Safety Alliance

The Food and Drug Administration is soliciting applications for a cooperative agreement to develop education, training, and outreach on FDA's Produce Safety Rule to produce farmers from federally recognized Tribes, with applications due August 28, 2026. This is a single-award opportunity limited exclusively to the University of Arkansas.

The program targets produce farmers who are members of federally recognized Tribes, including those not currently required to comply with the Produce Safety Rule but interested in doing so or seeing economic benefits. All activities must consider Tribal history, culture, and regional agricultural practices. The recipient must implement the program in three sequential phases: Phase 1 focuses on foundation and planning, including annual work plan development, landscape analysis, needs assessment, and logic model creation; Phase 2 establishes and maintains a national network of qualified Tribal produce safety trainers; Phase 3 addresses implementation, integration, continuous improvement, and training effectiveness. The FDA will review progress at the end of each phase before advancing.

The award is structured as a U01 Research Project Cooperative Agreement with a maximum project period of five years at $500,000 annually in direct and indirect costs. Key deliverables include collaboration with national and regional Tribal stakeholder leaders, the Produce Safety Alliance, FDA state cooperative agreement recipients, FSMA Alliances, and federal partners including USDA. Recipients must submit quarterly and annual performance progress reports documenting activities, data analysis, partnerships, and alignment with FDA priorities, including specific reporting on education and training activities, outreach events, technical assistance provided, and performance metrics using FDA-defined terms.

The opportunity falls under CFDA 93.103 (Food and Drug Administration Research).