Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation’s Health | CDC RFA OT18 18020301SUPP21

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA OT18 18020301SUPP21

This funding opportunity, titled "Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation's Health," is a CDC supplemental notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) designed specifically for organizations that already received awards under Funding Strategy 1 of the earlier CDC announcement CDC-RFA-OT18-1802. Rather than opening competition to entirely new applicants, the goal here is to provide additional, targeted resources to existing national partners so they can expand or continue capacity-building assistance work tied to the COVID-19 response. In practical terms, the CDC is using this supplement to reinforce public health systems by helping these previously funded partners deliver support, training, technical assistance, and related capacity-building activities that address ongoing pandemic needs.

The award mechanism is a cooperative agreement, meaning recipients should expect substantial federal involvement in the work, such as collaboration, guidance, and shared planning with CDC (as opposed to a more hands-off grant). The funding activity sits in the health category, and the opportunity references CFDA numbers 93.421 and 93.430, which align with public health preparedness and related public health system strengthening efforts. The administering agency is the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), specifically within OSTLTS (Office of State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support), which signals that the focus is on strengthening governmental public health infrastructure and the broader ecosystem of partners that support it.

A key requirement is that applicants must already be FY18 recipients under the original CDC-RFA-OT18-1802 Funding Strategy 1 and, for this supplement, they must submit COVID-19 CIO Project Plans that align with the same Target Population Category (A, B, or C) and Target Population Description tied to their original award. This is essentially a guardrail to keep the supplemental work consistent with the recipient's established scope and the population focus CDC originally funded, while still allowing the work to be adapted to COVID-19 response needs. The NOFO notes that these COVID-19 CIO Project Plan materials would be attached once the announcement is published, indicating that CDC expected applicants to follow a structured planning template or set of instructions specific to the supplement.

In terms of scale and timing, the NOFO was created on February 5, 2021, with an original application deadline of March 5, 2021. Applications had to be submitted through Grants.gov no later than 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time on the closing date, emphasizing the standard federal requirement that submissions must be successfully received by the system before the cutoff. The anticipated maximum award amount (award ceiling) is $250,000 per award, and CDC projected making about 15 awards. Taken together, those figures suggest a moderate-sized supplemental investment intended to quickly bolster ongoing response capacity through established partners, rather than launching a large new program with extensive ramp-up time.

Eligible applicant types listed for the opportunity include state, county, and city or township governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; and nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status (excluding higher education institutions in the nonprofit categories). However, because this is explicitly described as a supplement for prior awardees under a specific funding strategy, real eligibility is effectively constrained to those already-funded organizations that fit the original award conditions and can submit a project plan consistent with their previously assigned target population category and description.

Overall, this supplemental opportunity is best understood as a continuation and expansion tool: CDC is leveraging existing national partnership awards to push additional COVID-19-focused capacity-building assistance into the public health system, using a cooperative agreement structure and a relatively short application window, with awards sized up to $250,000 and an expected set of about 15 funded recipients.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - OSTLTS in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Strengthening Public Health Systems and Services through National Partnerships to Improve and Protect the Nation’s Health" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.421, 93.430.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 05, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 05, 2021 Explanation of Deadlines Application must be successfully submitted to Grants.gov by 1159 pm Eastern Standard Time on the deadline date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 15 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.

Apply for CDC RFA OT18 18020301SUPP21

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