Public Health Crisis Notice of Funding Opportunity

Public Health Crisis Notice of Funding Opportunity

CDC has released the Public Health Crisis notice of funding opportunity (NOFO), a novel approach to support emergency response that will enable CDC to more quickly award funds to state, local, tribal, and territorial public health agencies in the event of a public health emergency. Previous emergency experience has demonstrated the impact that initial funding and immediate response can have in mitigating negative health outcomes.

FAST FACTS

• Announcement Date: Wednesday, October 11, 2017
• Application Deadline: Monday, December 11, 2017
• Eligible Applicants:  50 states; five U.S. territories and three freely associated pacific islands;  six localities: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles County, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.; and federally recognized tribal governments that meet the NOFO requirements and serve, through their own public health infrastructures, at least 50,000 people.
• Estimated Approval/Funding Date: Thursday, February 1, 2018. Awardees will be approved but unfunded until a crisis occurs and funding is available.
• NOFO Management: The Division of State and Local Readiness in CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) will manage the initial response component, while longer-term, crisis-specific response activities will be supported by various CDC programs.
• NOFO and Application Package Location:  www.grants.gov
• Crisis NOFO Frequently Asked Questions

Background

Currently, CDC awards response funds following the same process used to award routine programmatic funds, significantly delaying jurisdictional response activities. Historically, delays in funding public health responses occur due to the time it takes to receive Congressional authorization/funding; CDC’s process for developing and clearing response funding guidance documents; jurisdictional funding application development and submission; and application review and processing of funding awards.

Expediting the Process

CDC’s new approach will allow the agency to expedite funding through the Public Health Crisis NOFO and the establishment of a corresponding “approved but unfunded” (ABU) list.  This ABU list will be established from the eligible health departments with pre-existing emergency management programs that submit timely and responsive applications. CDC will activate this mechanism when it makes a determination that a public health emergency has occurred or is imminent and funding is available. CDC will determine which health departments on the ABU list need to be funded, which could include all of them or only a subset. CDC will consider factors such as the nature of the specific emergency, disease burden (if appropriate), geographic location, health impact, and national priorities, among other factors.

Subject to the availability of funds, recipients would receive funds to stand up emergency activities for the first 120 days of the event. This would enable them to quickly begin response activities, such as activating the emergency operations center, preparing contracts for surge staffing, implementing risk communications activities, and determining crisis-specific resources that will be needed over the course of the response.