CDC Funding Opportunity to Bolster Analytics-Driven Outbreak Response

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced a new Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) via the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) aimed at enhancing outbreak response through data analytics and disease forecasting.

According to the press release, the NOFO establishes a cooperative agreement-based program designed to support state and local public health stakeholders as they develop and implement analytics tools specific to their jurisdictions.

Under the cooperative agreement, stakeholders will receive funding to help plan and prepare for infectious disease outbreaks, in addition to working with CFA to establish a national outbreak response network.

The program will leverage data and analytics-based approaches to build and scale outbreak response capabilities. Using these capabilities, state and local decision-makers hope to be able to better predict the trajectories of future outbreaks and more effectively detect, respond to, and mitigate any public health emergencies.

The press release indicates that the program will bolster the development of advanced outbreak modeling, forecasting, and analytics tools using three operational components: innovation, integration, and implementation.

The innovation pillar will support pipeline development for analytics approaches, platforms, and tools for data modeling and public health decision-making.

The integration step will select the most promising approaches from the innovation component for pilot testing at the state, local, tribal, or territorial level to measure their practical applications and success rates.

The innovation component will scale successful pilot projects from the integration component across jurisdictions to help provide effective tools for crucial public health action at the local level.

“Infectious disease outbreaks have and will continue to threaten our communities, friends and families,” said Dylan George, PhD, director of CFA, in the press release. “This network will increase our national capacity to use disease models, analytics, and forecasts to support public health action, prevent infections, protect people, and safeguard economies. The network will also provide desperately needed tools to fight outbreaks quickly and effectively in our communities, where critical response decisions are made.”

Those interested in receiving funding must apply to one of the three components or to serve as a coordinator among recipients for each operational component by no later than June 14, 2023. Additional information regarding the funding opportunity is currently available on CFA’s website.

This opportunity is one of CFA’s latest aimed at supporting public-health decision-making since its launch in April of last year.

The launch established CFA as the CDC’s new center for improving outbreak response and public health threat monitoring through the use of infectious disease modeling and analytics. A major part of CFA’s mission is to use these insights to help inform public health decision-making and improve outcomes.