CDC to review applications for $12.7 million in public health preparedness grants

A panel of specialists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will take its initial look at a group of applications from accredited schools of public health to win CDC grants of up to $906,000 each to improve the nation’s public health and medical preparedness, at a meeting in Atlanta, GA, on July 27-29.

The applications have been submitted under a grant program known as Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers, or PERLC, which will award up to $12.7 million by September 30.

“Accredited schools of public health will collaborate, develop and deliver core competency-based training and education that respond to the public health preparedness and response needs of state, local and tribal public health authorities, and emphasize essential public health security capabilities,” says a fact sheet posted last April on grants.gov.

The three-day meeting of the CDC panel, which will include “the initial review, discussion, and evaluation of applications received,” will be closed to the public, according to a Federal Register notice posted by the CDC on July 9.

The sessions will be held at the W Atlanta Hotel – Perimeter, in Atlanta.

Applications were due by May 26 from schools of public health that are accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health. CDC plans to award as many as 14 separate grants, each worth as much as $905,987 for the current fiscal year. Overall funding, for the planned five-year duration of the program, is expected to top $63 million, says the CDC.

The initial grants are expected to be awarded by September 30.

Recipients of these PERLC grants will be expected to develop program activities in three broad areas:

Core Competency-based Training for the Workforce  -- in which the schools will identify development needs for the workforces at public health authorities in states, localities, territories and tribal organizations.

Partner-Requested Education and Training – in which the public health preparedness and response needs of particular communities within the applicant’s defined area of service are defined.

Program Core and Network Activities – in which partnerships are developed among states, localities, territories and tribes within a specific service area, and core competencies are validated and translated into both practice and academic settings.

Further information about the closed CDC meeting in Atlanta is available from Shoukat Qari, senior scientific program official, at 404-639-7938 or SQari@cdc.gov.