CDC's Collaboration with Academia to Strengthen Public Health Workforce Capacity | CDC RFA OE17 17010502SUPP21

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA OE17 17010502SUPP21

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through the Department of Health and Human Services and CDCs Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology and Laboratory Services (CSELS), released a discretionary cooperative agreement opportunity called "CDCs Collaboration with Academia to Strengthen Public Health Workforce Capacity" (Funding Opportunity Number: CDC RFA OE17 17010502SUPP21; CFDA 93.967). The overall intent is to strengthen the public health workforce by pairing academic and training expertise with real-world practice needs, especially those highlighted by the COVID-19 response. The opportunity is structured around three distinct projects, and CDC anticipated making three awards. Eligible applicants include certain nonprofit organizations (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), excluding institutions of higher education in those nonprofit categories), private institutions of higher education, and other entities as allowed by the eligibility language in the notice. Applications were required to be submitted through Grants.gov by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the deadline date listed in the announcement. The published award ceiling for the overall opportunity is $2,000,000, reflecting the largest of the three project budgets.

Project 1 focuses on building a Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (PHEPR) Applied Research and Practice Training Program, with a requested budget of $400,000. The core problem it addresses is that traditional, formal public health education is often costly and limited by university enrollment capacity, while the pandemic highlighted the need for scalable, practical training that can reach far more people. The project aims to create structure around existing online public health courses, then turn that structure into a meaningful certification program that improves preparedness and response knowledge and helps shape the future workforce. The target audience is intentionally broad, spanning the general public and a wide range of responders and practitioners (public health staff, healthcare professionals, laboratorians, epidemiologists, veterinarians, first responders, educators, and students). The recipient is expected to develop at least five certificates with curricula defined with subject matter experts, using adult learning principles and emphasizing public health. Each certificate needs clear requirements (for example, a defined set of courses and total training hours), must include an introduction to PHEPR, and must include at least one course focused on PHEPR science. The program is expected to rely heavily on low-cost or no-cost existing courses sourced through platforms like CDC TRAIN and schools of public health; if key content is missing, the recipient would coordinate with CDC to determine whether new content can be developed or contributed by partners. A major deliverable is a certificate portal hosted on CDC TRAIN (or a similar platform), along with dissemination efforts to drive enrollment and a piloted tracking and evaluation approach to measure participation and overall effectiveness. Review for Project 1 heavily emphasizes the applicants technical approach (40 points) and similar experience (40 points), with management and staffing plans weighted at 20 points; staffing documentation is detailed, including resumes, time allocations, team interface plans with CDC, and letters of commitment for non-employee key personnel. Applicants are also expected to show strong capacity in knowledge synthesis, translation, dissemination, and evaluation, and at least 20 percent of proposed staff should have public health preparedness and response experience at the state, tribal, local, and territorial level.

Project 2 is the largest component, with a requested budget of $2,000,000, and is titled Building COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Among Nurses. This project is built on the idea that widespread vaccine uptake depends on public trust, and nurses are both a major segment of the healthcare workforce and among the most trusted messengers for vaccine information. Because nurses influence not only their peers but also patients, families, and communities, CDC is targeting nursing networks to improve confidence in vaccine development, safety, approval, and recommendation processes, and to counter misinformation. Eligibility is narrower here than in the other projects: only organizations that directly support nurses and schools of nursing nationwide can apply. The target population is nurses across the United States. Key activities include developing or delivering webinars and online modules that help nurses have effective vaccine conversations, including motivational interviewing when appropriate, while leveraging CDC resources and creating new materials as needed. The project also emphasizes making vaccine confidence visible through practical communications tactics such as collecting and sharing testimonials from vaccinated nurses, showcasing leaders getting vaccinated, preparing nurses to serve as media spokespeople, pitching earned media opportunities, and supporting op-eds. Another major workstream is building nurses capacity to share credible information and address misinformation on social media by identifying and training nurse influencers, using a CDC-provided toolkit, and convening a learning collaborative where participants can problem-solve and share techniques. Finally, the recipient is expected to collect and package "success stories" into shareable formats like short case studies, lesson summaries, and videos. CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and staff supporting the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force would provide technical assistance, updated materials, and access to partner networks to help coordinate best practices. Outcomes are framed as increased availability of conversation tools and resources, more strategies to build trust and confidence, and stronger collaboration across nursing membership. Review criteria emphasize broad-reach education delivery, the ability to visibly promote vaccine confidence, community engagement capacity (including collaboration with health departments and community organizations to reach hesitant or high-risk populations), and clearly stated targets for vaccine uptake and self-reported hesitancy.

Project 3 is a $300,000 effort titled Public Health Data Modernization Workshop, designed to increase the capability of the existing workforce by strengthening data and informatics leadership across jurisdictions. This project ties directly to CDCs Data Modernization Initiative and CARES Act investments that funded state, local, and territorial jurisdictions to modernize how they collect, manage, exchange, analyze, and use public health data. The selected recipient (described as an academic center) would plan, organize, and convene a two-day, in-person workshop in Atlanta for two representatives from each jurisdiction funded under the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Cooperative Agreement, Activity C2 (CK19-1904). The audience is specifically the data modernization leads those jurisdictions identified, plus potentially another technical staff member such as an informatician, epidemiologist, or data scientist. Eligibility and expectations are expertise-driven: applicants should have deep experience with public health information systems and surveillance, public health informatics and data exchange, data management and analytics, and decision-making practices, as well as a demonstrated ability to design workforce development activities and run high-quality workshops. The work is meant to build off the jurisdictions own modernization assessments and plans; the recipient is expected to synthesize those inputs and use them to shape the workshops agenda. The content should cover core modernization topics (for example, data standards, analytics approaches, shared services, and technology options) and also help jurisdictions think through workforce development strategies, including recommendations for follow-on training and peer-to-peer learning after the event. The workshop must include an evaluation component to measure learning and relevance, and execution is expected to be coordinated with CDC CSELS, with the recipient meeting with CDC one to two times per month. Funding is intended to cover planning, materials, staffing, workshop logistics, evaluation, follow-up, and meeting space, while participants travel is covered under the ELC award terms. Review scoring prioritizes demonstrated informatics and data systems expertise (30 points), the ability to translate IT opportunities into practical public health impact (30 points), proven workforce development and training success in the public health sector (25 points), and workshop planning/hosting experience (15 points).

Taken together, the opportunity is trying to solve a single broad challenge: public health emergencies expose gaps in workforce readiness, communication capacity, and data capability, and CDC wants to accelerate improvements by partnering with organizations that can train at scale, convene key practitioners, and translate evidence into practical skills. Project 1 builds a self-directed, certificate-based preparedness curriculum that can reach both professionals and the public through widely accessible platforms. Project 2 uses the nursing workforce as a trusted communications engine to improve COVID-19 vaccine confidence through training, storytelling, media engagement, and social media response. Project 3 strengthens data modernization leadership by bringing jurisdictional leads together for a focused, coordinated learning experience grounded in the jurisdictions own modernization plans. Across all three projects, CDC places strong emphasis on feasible technical plans, credible staffing, demonstrated past performance, dissemination reach, and evaluation so the work can be measured, improved, and reused by partners nationwide.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CSELS in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "CDC's Collaboration with Academia to Strengthen Public Health Workforce Capacity" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.967.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 07, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 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 $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: 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, Private institutions of higher education, Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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