Grants / Department of Health and Human Services / Food and Drug Administration

Development and Maintenance of Human and Animal Food Rapid Response Teams

Open Rolling or no fixed deadline Opportunity PAR-27-014

• Award ceiling$360,000
• Total funding$6.5 million
• Expected awards28
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeCooperative Agreement

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the applicants described in the notice.

• Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)

Eligibility for this funding opportunity is limited to state human and animal food regulatory programs listed here: manufactured food regulatory programs, retail food regulatory programs, produce regulatory programs, and animal food regulatory programs that meet the eligibility criteria below may apply for funding under this cooperative agreement. Competition is limited to these programs. Only one application is allowed per state. Jurisdictions interested in involving multiple state entities (within their jurisdiction) should internally coordinate and choose one (1) entity to apply. Eligible state human and animal food regulatory programs should discuss who is best suited to lead development of new RRTs. States that have existing RRTs should continue to maintain their RRTs using the existing program lead team and infrastructure developed through prior RRT cooperative agreement investments. Applicants will be categorized under one of two (2) focus areas: RRT Development or RRT Maintenance (see eligibility criteria and funding ceilings (maximum amount that may be requested)). Applicants must indicate the focus area applicable in the application. Passing up to 20% of these total base awards to partners is allowable. Additionally, funding will be offered to Maintenance RRT states, ONLY, as subawards for prevention projects related to MAHA objectives that exceed the minimum required for a grantee's funding level, up to a maximum of three (3) subawards of $20,000 per state. RRT partner recipients of subawards must agree to document how the subawards and passthrough funds are used to assist the RRT in meeting program objectives. This includes information related to the overall RRT budget and Capability Assessment Tool submissions. Progress updates on subaward funded activities must be included in mid-year and end-of-year progress reports. Applicants are encouraged to tailor their cooperative agreement requests to their jurisdiction's needs in terms of funding amount and number of project years. See Full Announcement for Details.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Food and Drug Administration Research awards averaged $1.3 million; this notice allows up to $360,000 per award.
• Most of the program's money (35% over five years) went to nonprofits.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to develop and maintain Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) to facilitate long-term improvements and innovation within the national integrated food safety system by unifying and coordinating federal, state, and local human and animal food (HAF) emergency response efforts including: 1) Strengthening the link among epidemiology, lab, and environmental health/regulatory components and supporting foodborne illness detection, investigation, control, and prevention efforts; 2) Improving States' regulatory and surveillance HAF protection and prevention programs through the development and continued use of Incident Command System (ICS)/National Incident Management System (NIMS) principles and a Unified Command structure to conduct integrated responses to all-hazards HAF emergencies, rapidly identifying and removing tainted food from commerce, and conducting root cause investigations to inform future prevention efforts; 3) Addressing supporting components, such as training, data sharing, data analysis, communications, continuous process improvement, and development of best practices and other resources to support national response capacity/capability development; and 4) Identifying and implementing innovative approaches in alignment with presidential initiatives to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) and Make Our Children Healthy Again (MOCHA) with the aim of reducing long term implications of foodborne illness through prevention, detection, and response efforts. See Full Announcement for Details.

Category: Agriculture, Consumer Protection, Food and Nutrition, Health.

How to apply

1. Read the full notice and attachments on Grants.gov and the agency's announcement. The notice is the official source for deadlines and requirements.
2. Make sure your organization has an active SAM.gov registration and Unique Entity ID; registration can take several weeks.
3. Register on Grants.gov and submit through Workspace before the deadline and time given in the notice. Our application guide walks through each step.

Questions go to Stephanie Bogan, Grantor, Danielle.Head@fda.hhs.gov, 3018276802.

Open the official notice