National Syndromic Surveillance Program Community of Practice (NSSP CoP)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds development and maintenance of a community of practice supporting syndromic surveillance practice across U.S. public health agencies under CFDA 93.852, with the most recent grant award dated July 1, 2016.

This program has not been active for a decade. The portfolio contains a single Project Grant of $1.2 million obligated to strengthen health surveillance capabilities nationwide through the National Syndromic Surveillance Program Community of Practice (NSSP-CoP), awarded in 2016 with a completion date of June 30, 2019. No subsequent grant awards appear in the record.

The program funds organizations with demonstrated expertise in syndromic surveillance practice to operate a peer-to-peer collaborative environment where public health practitioners and stakeholders share knowledge, problem-solve, exchange tools and resources, and advance syndromic surveillance use. Syndromic surveillance itself emphasizes near-real-time pre-diagnostic data and statistical analysis to detect unusual health activity for public health investigation or response. Grantee activities include developing forums and strategies for community members to connect, collaborating with CDC on knowledge-sharing mechanisms, and supporting adoption of syndromic surveillance among state and local public health agencies.

The CDC is the sole funding agency under this program. The single available opportunity (CDC-RFA-OE16-1601) closed on March 7, 2016, and was posted in December 2015 as a Cooperative Agreement. Eligible applicants included state and local governments, territorial governments, tribal governments, nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, for-profit organizations, and small businesses.

Given the decade-long gap since the last award and the absence of any currently open solicitation in the record, this program does not appear to be an active funding source for new grant pursuit at this time.