Have an idea that could overcome a global health challenge? Send a proposal to The Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative!

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and its funding partners in the Grand Challenges family of grant programs invite you to apply for four new grant opportunities:

1) Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions, is now accepting grant proposals for its latest application round. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for-profit companies.

Proposals are being accepted online until November 12, 2013 on the following topics:

• Innovations in Feedback & Accountability Systems for Agricultural Development
• Inciting Healthy Behaviors: nudge, leapfrog, disrupt, reach
• Novel Enabling Tools and Models Supporting the Development of Interventions for Severe Diarrhea and Enteric Dysfunction
• Develop the Next Generation of Condom
• The "One Health" Concept: Bringing Together Human and Animal Health

Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions are available at: www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.

2) Achieving Healthy Growth through Agriculture and Nutrition, the first program launched through the Grand Challenges India partnership, is now accepting applications. This program joins others within the Grand Challenges family of grant programs supported by the Gates Foundation and its partners. It seeks a comprehensive set of approaches - spanning innovation in  nutrition and agriculture and social innovation - to 1) reduce the high incidence of low birth weight, early stunting, and wasting in Indian children less than 2 years of age and 2) prevent undernutrition in women of reproductive age and in children from 0-2 years of age.

The application deadline is October 31, 2013. Details on how to apply for a grant can be found at http://www.grandchallenges.org/GrantOpportunities/Pages/GCIndia_healthygrowth.aspx.

3) Records for Life: A Design Contest that can Save Lives. This new grant opportunity seeks individuals or teams to re-examine the current child health record and design new ways to accurately track vaccine doses, increase ease of interpretation and use, and incite behavior change to make the record a valued asset for health professionals and families alike.

The application deadline is October 31, 2013. Details on how to apply for a grant can be found at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/General-Information/Grant-Opportunities/Records-for-Life-RFP.

4) This October researchers are invited to attend Advancing Vaccines in the Genomic Era, a meeting held as part of the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The meeting will be held October 31 - November 4, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More information can be found at http://www.keystonesymposia.org/13T1.

The Grand Challenges team looks forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world and from all disciplines, so if you have a great idea, please apply. And if you know someone else who may have a great idea, share the message!

Thank you for your commitment to solving the world's greatest health and development challenges.

~The Grand Challenges Team

CDC Awards Funding to Support Public Health Surveillance, Disease Detection and Outbreak Response

On Tuesday, August 20, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an award to states of about $75.8 million through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreement (ELC). This funding helps states and communities strengthen core epidemiology and laboratory capacity needed to track and respond quickly to a variety of infectious diseases.

Through the ELC mechanism, CDC provides funding to all 50 state health departments, six local health departments, and eight territories or U.S. affiliates. Funds provided through the ELC mechanism help pay for more than 1,000 full- and part-time public health employees including epidemiologists, laboratorians, and health information systems staff. The annual ELC investment provides public health officials with improved tools to respond to more outbreaks, conduct surveillance faster and prevent more illnesses and deaths from infectious diseases.

The funding provided through the ELC cooperative agreement supports surveillance, detection, and outbreak response efforts in many infectious disease areas, including zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, foodborne diseases, influenza, and healthcare-associated infections. Beth P. Bell, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, stated the significance of this funding in strengthening national infectious disease infrastructure, “With many infectious diseases first identified at the local level, this funding ensures that state health departments are able to effectively prevent, detect and respond to such public health threats.”

This investment by the CDC directly addresses a key recommendation from ISDS’s recently published Sustainable Surveillance paper by giving recognition to public health surveillance as a core public health function. As stated by Scott Becker, MS, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), even though this year’s allocation is a 4% drop from last year, the small cut in light of sequestration shows how highly we value public health surveillance in the country.

This funding is in addition to $13.7 million that went out through the ELC mechanism in January. More details on state-by-state ELC funding and on CDC’s ELC cooperative agreement are available on the ELC webpage at: http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dpei/epidemiology-laboratory-capacity.html. 

*The above information was adapted from the Press Release by CDC and from CIDRAP News.

DTRA Request for Proposals: Disease Surveillance

The following information is taken from a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The full text can be found here: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DTRA/DTRA01/HDTRA1-14-CHEM-BIO-BAA/listing.html. For a list of proposal topics, visit the link above and scroll to Attachment 9 on the right hand side of the page. Please note that this call ends on Wednesday, March 20th.

Synopsis:

THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION
The purpose of this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is to solicit proposals for the Chemical and Biological Technologies Department Fiscal Year (FY) 2014-FY2016 Program Build

Scope:

This solicitation is an extramural endeavor focused on seeking optimum approaches to meet technology objectives within the following areas: Diagnostics, Detection, and Disease Surveillance, Physical Science and Technology, Translational Medical, Advanced and Emerging Threats, and Information Systems Capability.

Purpose:

The purpose of this BAA is to solicit research proposals for Chemical and Biological Defense Program, DTRA requirements for the Chemical / Biological Technologies Department BAA for the FY2014-2016 program.

The Chemical / Biological Technologies Department (CB), in its continuing mission, seeking new and innovative ideas for experimental and theoretical development of technologies to fill DoD requirements for chemical and biological defense. The goal is to identify and select science and technology projects that can be transitioned to joint acquisition programs. Proposals may only address the current topics presented in Attachment 9 of this solicitation.

Solicitation Approach and Overview:

This BAA remains effective for proposal selection for three years from the initial date of issuance with the ability to award contracts for four years. Multiple calls for proposals may occur in conjunction with this BAA. The topics and milestones (Attachment 9) published in the initial issuance are firm. In the future, ongoing, new or emerging requirements may necessitate amendment of the BAA to include new or different topics. At any time when new topics are added, Attachment 9 will be amended to incorporate new topics and milestones associated the time period for submissions. These amendments are expected periodically throughout the effect date of the BAA.

Proposals will be accepted and considered that combine Basic Research with Applied Research, Applied Research, and/or Advanced Technology Development as specified in each topic. This BAA will not consider Advanced Component Development and Prototypes under Section 819 of Public Law 111-84. However, offerors may propose efforts necessary to evaluate integrated advanced development to expedite technology transition from the laboratory to operational use under a final option and limited to a period of one year while a new competitive effort can be awarded. Depending on the nature of requirements and/or available funding, each of these research categories may or may not be included in the most current List of Topics. Attachment 9 may be amended to add new topics throughout the requirement period. Each subsequent amended Attachment 9 requesting submissions for new topics will incorporate new milestones specific to those topics.

The Government encourages proposals that span a wide spectrum of possible technical and business solutions in response to the specific technology topics stated in Attachment 9. The Government reserves the right to award any combination of approaches which offer the best overall value to the Government, and to oversee any and all processes and approaches once ongoing.

A full range of flexible acquisition related statutory authority arrangements available to DTRA are possible results from this announcement, including but not limited to, Contracts, Task Orders, and Other Transaction Agreements (OTA). The Government does not intend to award grants or Cooperative agreements under this solicitation. Each of these procurement instruments offers different advantages, liabilities and responsibilities for the Government. Except for OTAs, the Government actions under this BAA shall adhere to the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS).

All questions (administrative or technical) related to this BAA must be e-mailed to CB-FY14-16BAA@dtra.mil.

Full text can be found here: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DTRA/DTRA01/HDTRA1-14-CHEM-BIO-BAA/listing.html

Request for Proposals: Pilot Project for Public Health Case Reporting Using C-CDA

National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO)  along with the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) announce a funding opportunity for state and local health departments to participate in a pilot project for the implementation of public health case reporting from electronic health records (EHR) to public health agencies using Consolidated Clinical Data Architecture (C-CDA).

CDC and the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Standards and Interoperability (S&I) Framework, Public Health Reporting Initiative (PHRI) are working to reduce the reporting burden on healthcare providers and public health agencies by harmonizing data elements across public health domains and developing a standardized data structure through the implementation of C-CDA. The PHRI has produced two work products: a set of harmonized data elements and a C-CDA library of templates for several public health conditions, which will be tested and demonstrated at pilot site(s). This pilot will help determine if and how the PHRI products can serve as resources to facilitate implementation of public health case reporting from clinical providers to public health agencies.  

If interested, please submit an application to Monica Huang mhuang@cste.org at the CSTE National Office by Friday, March 15, 2013.

Please click here for additional background information and instructions (pdf) »

BioSense 2.0 FOA - Update!

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced important amendments to the BioSense 2.0 funding opportunity, "BioSense 2.0: Building State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Surveillance Capacity to Enhance Regional and National All-Hazards Public Health Situation Awareness"on June 14, 2012. Thanks to newly available funds, the funding capacity of the FOA has increased. Please find a detailed description of the changes below.


The amendment involved three main issues: 
1. Increased funding - approximate current fiscal year funding: $7,000,000
2. Increased number of grantees - approximate number of awards: up to 35
3. Changed anticipated award date - September 1, 2012


These changes have not had any effect on the application deadline date which remains June 26, 2012 at 5:00 PM EDT. 


Learn more about this funding opportunity by downloading the updated appellation package found here: http://apply07.grants.gov/apply/opportunities/packages/oppCDC-RFA-OE12-1202-cfda93.283-cidOSELS-NR.pdf

The instructions for applying for this grant opportunity have also changed.  You can download the new instructions here: http://apply07.grants.gov/apply/opportunities/instructions/oppCDC-RFA-OE12-1202-cfda93.283-cidOSELS-NR-instructions.doc

Joint Public Health and Meaningful Use Nationwide Call

In an effort to better inform the public health practice community about the funding opportunities made available through CMS and state Medicaid programs, JPHIT will be co-sponsoring a webinar with the ONC, CDC, and CMS that features Kentucky's use of these funds. The funds are available to public health, health information exchanges, and other principally to support one-time infrastructure costs. 


The National Governors Association has prepared a fact sheet on the purpose and process of this new Medicaid funding mechanism.


This event wil take place on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT.


The agenda for this meeting will be: 


1. 10 minutes – Announcements and Introduction (CDC, ONC or CMS)


Directors - Laura Conn (CDC), and Jim Daniel (ONC)


2. 40 minutes – Presentation:  “HIE & Public Health Meaningful Use Measures ”


Multiple Presenters: Polly Mullins Bentley, Acting Executive Director, KY Governor’s Office of Electronic Health Information  (State HIT Coordinator), Karen Chrisman, KHIE’s Staff Attorney, April Smith, KHIE’s Project Manager, N. Brennan O’Banion, Ph.Dc, KHIE’s Public Health Consultant, and Robert Nowell, Director of Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, KY Department for Medicaid Services 


This presentation will showcase the established and planned value-added service layers of the Kentucky Health Information Exchange that support public health reporting and Meaningful Use Measures. 


3. 10 minutes - Question and Answer Session 


Below is the WebEx information to join the call: 


Topic: Joint Public Health and Meaningful Use Nationwide Call
Host: Shirilyn Njie
Date and Time: Thursday, June 21, 2012 3:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)
Event number: 653 203 252
Event password: PHMU*614
Event address for attendees: https://westat.webex.com/westat/onstage/g.php?d=653203252&t=a


To view in other time zones or languages, please click the link: https://westat.webex.com/westat/onstage/g.php?d=653203252&t=a&EA=shirilynnjie%40westat.com&ET=4ff36a3a453ba159d97d3955660b6a62&ETR=b50d8ffe2b4a54b522cfab73907be283&ORT=MiMxMQ==&p
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To join the teleconference only
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To receive a call back, provide your phone number when you join the event, or call the number below and enter the access code.
Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-650-429-3300
Global call-in numbers: https://westat.webex.com/westat/globalcallin.php?serviceType=EC&ED=193383127&tollFree=1
Access code: 653 203 252