CDC Awards to Establish National Infectious Disease Forecasting Network

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded roughly $262.5 million in grant funding over the next five years to 13 institutions to help establish a national infectious disease and forecasting network known as the Outbreak Analytics and Disease Modeling Network (OADM).

The initiative is spearheaded by the CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA) following a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) launched in May. Per the NOFO, the funding will support the creation of a cooperative agreement-based program aimed at assisting state and local public health stakeholders working to develop and deploy analytics tools for future outbreak preparedness.

Under the agreement, participants will also collaborate with CFA to launch a national outbreak response network. From there, the network will help stakeholders better detect, respond to, and mitigate public health emergencies.

The 13 funding winners will undertake projects that support the program’s innovation, integration, and implementation components:

• The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security received $23.5 million for “Toward Epidemic Preparedness: Enhancing Public Health Infrastructure and Incorporating Data-Driven Tools,” which aims to engage traditional and nontraditional public health stakeholders and promote nationwide adoption of data analytics tools.
• The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health will use $4.5 million in annual funding for the next five years to support the establishment of the Atlantic Coast Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics and Analytics (ACCIDDA), which will serve as the OADM Coordinating Center.
• A team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and The University of Texas at Austin was awarded $27.5 million to scale existing predictive analytics tools that have been leveraged successfully during previous outbreaks. Researchers at Northwestern University will support these efforts.
• The University of Michigan School of Public Health’s $17.5 million in funding will establish the Michigan Public Health Integrated Center for Outbreak Analytics and Modeling (MICOM).
• A team from Emory University also received $17.5 million to support the development of new analytics tools, platforms, and methods for outbreak response.
• The Carnegie Mellon University Delphi Research Group for a Center of Innovation in Outbreak Analytics and Disease Monitoring will utilize its $17.5 million grant to expand data collection efforts to improve disease forecasting.
• The University of Minnesota will use part of its $17.5 million award to create machine learning (ML) algorithms to help more accurately count new disease cases and identify new patterns of symptoms that may forecast an outbreak.
• A team at the University of California, San Diego received $17.5 million to evaluate its previously developed adaptive modeling process with San Diego’s Health and Human Services Agency. If the process is deemed successful, it will provide a blueprint for how such modeling can best inform public health action.
• Northeastern University’s $17.5 million will establish “EPISTORM: The Center for Advanced Epidemic Analytics and Predictive Modeling Technology,” which will help coordinate efforts in artificial intelligence (AI), ML, and wastewater surveillance among ten health systems, research organizations, and private companies.

“Each of the grantees will help us move the nation forward in our efforts to better prepare and respond to infectious disease outbreaks that threaten our families and our communities,” said Dylan George, director of the CFA, in a statement. “We are committed to working alongside these outstanding partners to achieve our goal of using data and advanced analytics to support decision-makers at every level of government.”