Funding-Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Flexible Funding Model - Infrastructure Development and Maintenance for State Manufactured Food Regulatory Programs (U18); October 1, 2017

Notice Number: NOT-FD-17-004

Key Dates
Release Date: February 22, 2017

Estimated Publication Date of Announcement:  October 1, 2017
First Estimated Application Due Date:  March 1, 2018 
Earliest Estimated Award Date: June 1, 2018  
Earliest Estimated Start Date:  August 1, 2018 

Related Announcements
None

Issued by
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

Purpose

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Regulatory Affairs intends to publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to solicit cooperative agreement applications for projects designed to advance efforts for a nationally integrated food safety system (IFSS) by supporting Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS), Rapid Response Teams (RRT) and Food Protection Task Force (FPTF) programs, as well as special projects.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop meaningful collaborations and responsive projects. 

The FOA is expected to be published in October 2017 with an expected application due date in March 2018.

This FOA will utilize the U18 activity code. Details of the planned FOA are provided below.

Details

The intended outcome of this FOA is to advance efforts for a nationally integrated food safety system (IFSS) by supporting Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS), Rapid Response Teams (RRT) and Food Protection Task Force (FPTF) programs, as well as special projects.

Applicants will request funding to support State manufactured food regulatory programs achieving and maintaining conformance with the most current version of the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS). The MFRPS are intended to enhance food safety by establishing a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of manufactured food regulatory programs in the United States. Conformance with these program standards will help Federal and State programs better direct their regulatory activities at reducing foodborne illness hazards in plants that manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods. 

Applicants may also request funding to establish and/or support a Food Protection Task Force responsible for promoting the integration of an efficient statewide food protection system that maximizes the protection of the public health.  These efforts would include: fostering communication, education, outreach, cooperation and collaboration within the states among federal, state, local, tribal and territorial food protection, public health, agriculture, and regulatory agencies, industry, academia, and consumers to initiate and/or support food protection activities to improve public health.

Applicants may also request funding to support development or maintenance of a RRT, which is designed to unify and coordinate federal/state/local human and animal food emergency response efforts including:

1) Strengthening the link among epidemiology, lab and environmental health/regulatory components;

2) Improving States' regulatory and surveillance human and animal food protection programs to include using Incident Command System (ICS)/National Incident Management System (NIMS) principles and a Unified Command structure to conduct integrated responses to all-hazards human and animal food emergencies, rapidly identifying and removing tainted food from commerce, and conducting root cause investigations to inform future prevention efforts; and

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 capacity/capability development.

Applicants may also request funding to support development and implementation of special projects that support innovation and integration in a nationally Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) using the MFRPS or RRT framework. State programs will be expected to share project deliverables and resources developed with other programs. 

APPLICATIONS ARE NOT BEING SOLICITED AT THIS TIME.

Link to Full Announcement

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-FD-17-004.html