CDC Partnership: Strengthening Public Health Laboratories

The activities under this cooperative agreement are aligned with the following Healthy People 2030 overarching objectives: Global Health, Environmental Health, Food Safety, Immunizations and Infectious Diseases, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV, He

Strengthening Public Health Laboratories

Applicants must have experience with enhancing and strengthening the work and functionality of public health laboratories both domestically and abroad. The overarching goal is to improve several aspects of public health laboratories.

The nation's public is the ultimate recipient of benefits from this program.

Project funds may be used for costs associated with planning, organizing, conducting, and supporting public health laboratory infrastructure programs, and for the implementation of other program elements as described in the NOFO. Direct Assistance to pay for CDC fellows (particularly the Laboratory Leadership Service fellows) to help build laboratory capacity. The purpose of the program is to enhance the work of public health laboratories in the U.S. and abroad. The program aims to promote quality public health laboratory practice, improve public health laboratory infrastructure, strengthen the public health laboratory system, and to develop a well-trained public health laboratory workforce in the U.S. and globally. It also aims to ensure laboratory preparedness for emerging infectious diseases or other biologic and chemical public health threats, promote technology transfer to ensure up-to-date technologies for the testing laboratory, and enhance communication linkages between state and local public health laboratories and the clinical laboratory testing community Improvement of public health laboratory infrastructure, state-of-the-art training for the nation's laboratorians to be prepared in dealing with public health threats, improving laboratory leadership capabilities, enhancing inter-laboratory communications and provide programmatic and technical support to other focus areas including policy, emergency preparedness, global health, informatics and professional development.

Project funds may be used for costs associated with planning, organizing, conducting, and supporting public health laboratory infrastructure programs, and for the implementation of other program elements as described in the NOFO. Direct Assistance to pay for CDC fellows (particularly the Laboratory Leadership Service fellows) to help build laboratory capacity. The purpose of the program is to enhance the work of public health laboratories in the U.S. and abroad. The program aims to promote quality public health laboratory practice, improve public health laboratory infrastructure, strengthen the public health laboratory system, and to develop a well-trained public health laboratory workforce in the U.S. and globally. It also aims to ensure laboratory preparedness for emerging infectious diseases or other biologic and chemical public health threats, promote technology transfer to ensure up-to-date technologies for the testing laboratory, and enhance communication linkages between state and local public health laboratories and the clinical laboratory testing community Improvement of public health laboratory infrastructure, state-of-the-art training for the nation's laboratorians to be prepared in dealing with public health threats, improving laboratory leadership capabilities, enhancing inter-laboratory communications and provide programmatic and technical support to other focus areas including policy, emergency preparedness, global health, informatics and professional development.

Financial assistance is provided for a 12-month budget period with project periods of up to five years subject to the availability of funds and satisfactory progress of the recipient.

Refer to the applicable NOFO on www.grants.gov for additional details.

Applications will be evaluated on the review criteria described in the Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcements (NOFOs). In general, the review and selection process of complete and responsive applications to the NOFO consists of determination of the scientific and technical merit by objective or peer review, availability of funds, and relevance of program priorities and the priorities of CDC.

After review and approval, a Notice of Award (NoA) will be prepared and processed, along with appropriate notification to the public. Initial awards provide funds for the first budget period (usually 12 months) and the NoA will indicate support recommended for the remainder of the project period, allocation of Federal funds by budget categories, award requirements, and special conditions, if any.

Check Grants.gov for any relevant NOFO information regarding processes for applying for assistance.

Cooperative agreement project periods are 1 to 5 years. After initial awards, and subject to availability of funds, projects may be renewed non-competitively contingent upon satisfactory progress by the recipient (as documented in required reports) and the determination that continued funding is in the best interest of the Federal government.