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The intended outcome of this cooperative agreement is to advance the goal of a national food safety system by supporting and enhancing state food laboratories tasked with investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks in activities including: 1. Ensuring microbiological and chemical food analyses performed on behalf of the State manufactured food regulatory programs are conducted within the scope of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/ International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 17025 accredited laboratory; 2. Strengthening the collaboration between the laboratories and State manufactured food regulatory programs; 3. Increasing the number of State samples collected and analyzed for surveillance purposes annually; 4. Developing a stronger international rapid surveillance system for pathogen traceback through the GenomeTrakr network using a minimum set of metadata fields for all food and environmental isolates; and 5. Providing additional support to the State food laboratories through an outside association to offer trainings, workshops, and educational resources to both awardees under this cooperative agreement and to unfunded laboratories seeking ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.

This AFRI Challenge Area promotes and enhances the scientific discipline of food safety, with an overall aim of protecting consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that may occur during all stages of the food chain, from production to consumption. This requires an understanding of the interdependencies of human, animal, and ecosystem health as it pertains to foodborne pathogens. The long-term outcome for this program is to reduce foodborne illnesses and deaths by improving the safety of the food supply, which will result in reduced impacts on public health and on our economy. In order to achieve this outcome, this program will support single-function Research Projects and multi-function Integrated Research, Education, and/or Extension Projects, and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants that address one of the Program Area Priorities (see Food Safety RFA for details).

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), builds upon the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) which was initiated in 1996 as one of the key activities in a national action plan to combat antibiotic resistance threats. The purpose of this FOA is to protect and promote public health by enhancing, strengthening and sustaining antibiotic resistance surveillance in retail food specimens within the NARMS program. The NARMS cooperative agreements will improve the detection of antibiotic resistance among enteric bacteria in food commodities, as well as potentially develop new sites as part of the program. Measurable outcomes of the program will be in alignment with the NARMS Objectives.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), builds upon the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) which was initiated in 1996 as one of the key activities in a national action plan to combat antibiotic resistance threats. The purpose of this FOA is to protect and promote public health by enhancing, strengthening and sustaining antibiotic resistance surveillance in retail food specimens within the NARMS program. The NARMS cooperative agreements will improve the detection of antibiotic resistance among enteric bacteria in food commodities, as well as potentially develop new sites as part of the program. Measurable outcomes of the program will be in alignment with the NARMS Objectives.

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas: Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics; Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators; Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing) New innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and Methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops.

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas: Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics; Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators; Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing) New innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and Methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops.

The Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN) is pleased to invite students to submit papers in competition for the 2013 Christine Wilson Awards presented to outstanding undergraduate and graduate student research papers that examine topics within the perspectives in nutrition, food studies and anthropology. Papers may report on research undertaken in whole or in part by the author. Co -authored work is acceptable, provided that submitting student is first author. Papers must have as their primary focus an anthropological approach to the study of food and/or nutrition and must present original, empirical research; literature reviews are not eligible. Papers that propose a new conceptual framework or outline novel research designs or methodological approaches are especially welcome. Winners will be recognized and presented with an award at the 2013 AAA meeting in Chicago, IL and receive a year's membership in SAFN.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), builds upon the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) which was initiated in 1996 as one of the key activities in a national action plan to combat antibiotic resistance threats. The purpose of this FOA is to protect and promote public health by enhancing, strengthening and sustaining antibiotic resistance surveillance in retail food specimens within the NARMS program. The NARMS cooperative agreements will improve the detection of antibiotic resistance among enteric bacteria in food commodities, as well as potentially develop new sites as part of the program. Measurable outcomes of the program will be in alignment with the NARMS Objectives.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Office of Training Education and Development (OTED) is announcing the availability of a cooperative agreement to be awarded under a Limited Competition. FDA can guarantee one year of funding with the possibility of up to four years of additional, noncompetitive support, dependent on performance and continued availability of federal funds.The national associations /organizations eligible to apply for funding under this cooperative agreement must be a national association/organization that represents State and local laboratories that conduct food and/or animal feed testing on behalf of State and local regulatory programs.The awardee will be required to sub award a minimum of 25% of the funds received under this award to at least two different associations to meet the goals of the cooperative agreement. One association must represent state manufactured food regulatory officials and the other association must represent state animal feed regulatory officials.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the  Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) under which the Secretary of Agriculture may make competitive grants for fundamental and applied research, education, and extension to address food and agricultural sciences (as defined under section 1404 of the National  Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (NARETPA) (7 U.S.C. 3103)), as amended, in six priority areas. The six priority areas include: 1) plant health and production and plant products; 2) animal health and production and animal products; 3) food  safety, nutrition, and health; 4) renewable energy, natural resources, and environment; 5) agriculture systems and technology; and 6) agriculture economics and rural communities. 

The intended outcome of this program is to advance efforts to improve and develop state drug residue prevention programs. It is necessary to provide assistance to state drug residue programs that need a stronger foundation to promote the prevention of illegal drug residues in animal derived foods through educational outreach and training. This program is intended to ensure drug residue prevention programs are developed to protect consumer exposure to drug residues in the edible products of food animals and support activities related to drug residue prevention. In addition, these awards will assist state agencies to better direct their programs to reduce the outcomes of illegal drug residues in animal derived foods. This cooperative agreement program (CAP) will focus on outreach, education and training. In addition, grantees will focus on performing targeted on-site assessments related to drug residue violations and best practice visits to industry and individuals to communicate proper drug use and promote effective management practices for drug residue prevention.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Office of Training Education and Development (OTED) is announcing this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for a Cooperative Agreement Grant. The goals of this Cooperative Agreement Grant are to continue the development of the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) National Curriculum Standard (NCS) for the laboratory competency and curriculum frameworks, further work on the development and validation of competency statements. As the NCS is completed at each level, then training content can be developed to meet the standard, post web courses and deliver classroom courses to IFSS laboratorians nationwide. Under FSMA Section 209, FDA is directed to improve the training of state, local, territorial and tribal food safety officials and set standards and administer training and education programs to ensure a competent work force doing comparable work.

The Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net) is a collaborative forum of environmental health specialists who work together to improve environmental health practice. EHS-Net seeks to improve the practice of environmental health service programs by developing and sustaining a network of environmental health specialists (EHS) who collaborate with epidemiologists, laboratorians and other public health professionals to conduct practice-based research to identify and prevent environmental risk factors contributing to foodborne illness. For information on EHS-Net activities, please visit http ://www .cdc .gov /nceh /ehs /EHSNe t / index.htm. This announcement will fund EHS-Net-related research projects for food safety activities under the jurisdiction of departments of health or other agencies responsible for regulatory oversight of retail food service including restaurants, delis, cafeterias, schools, etc.

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems.

This interagency Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) issued by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) is to invite the submission of grant applications that utilize agriculturally important domestic animal species to improve human health through the advancement of basic and translational research deemed highly relevant to both agricultural and biomedical research. This initiative is designed to facilitate and encourage comparative medicine research studies through the careful selection and refinement of farm animal models that mimic human developmental, physiological and etiological processes to better understand disease origins and improve assisted reproduction efficiencies. The anticipated outcomes include both the elucidation of fundamental information relevant for the improvement of human health and an increase in food animal production and improvement in animal health and product quality. It is envisioned that each application will address mission-relevant areas of both agencies.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to promote research on food specific molecular signatures and biomarkers of dietary consumption and to promote collaborative interactions among NIH and USDA supported nutrition researchers.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), hereby announce their interest in receiving applications for genomics- based research that will lead to the improved use of plant biomass and feedstocks for the production of biofuels and renewable chemical feedstocks. Applications are sought for research on candidate herbaceous and woody plants with improved resistance/tolerance to disease and disease complexes, and non-food oil seed crops for improved winter cold tolerance/survivability and agronomic traits. Research to overcome these biological barriers to the low-cost, high-quality, scalable and sustainable production of dedicated bioenergy biomass feedstocks using the tools of genetics and genomics are encouraged.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports the optimization of potential therapeutic Biotechnology Products and Biologics (e.g., peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, gene and cell therapies) for disorders identified under the NINDS mission. This track supports the further characterization and optimization of therapeutic lead(s) that showed promise as a potential therapeutic agent as evidenced by convincing animal proof-of-concept studies. Therefore, at the end of this funding period, successful projects will have delivered and optimized therapeutic candidate with demonstrated bioactivity, stability, manufacturability, bioavailability, in vivo efficacy and should be eligible for entry into the CREATE Bio Development track. The CREATE Bio Development track is a later stage program focused on the development of optimized therapeutic candidates through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies and submission of an IND package to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports the optimization of potential therapeutic Biotechnology Products and Biologics (e.g., peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, gene and cell therapies) for disorders identified under the NINDS mission. This track supports the further characterization and optimization of therapeutic lead(s) that showed promise as a potential therapeutic agent as evidenced by convincing animal proof-of-concept studies. Therefore, at the end of this funding period, successful projects will have delivered and optimized therapeutic candidate with demonstrated bioactivity, stability, manufacturability, bioavailability, in vivo efficacy and should be eligible for entry into the CREATE Bio Development track. The CREATE Bio Development track is a later stage program focused on the development of optimized therapeutic candidates through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies and submission of an IND package to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The NIAID Radiation/Nuclear Countermeasures Development Program supports extramural research to develop safe and effective radiological/nuclear medical countermeasures for clinical use under emergency situations. This program spans basic through applied research. The role of the endovascular network in radiation injury pathogenesis is not well understood; however, the importance of this biological system in the observed multi-organ dysfunction and failure that occurs following radiation exposure has recently been established. The purpose of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide an opportunity for academic, industry and government laboratory researchers to address gaps in the understanding of the pathophysiology of radiation injury in the vasculature, and how this damage contributes to overall mortality following radiation exposure. This funding will also advance the development of post-exposure treatment approaches targeting the vascular endothelium, with the ultimate goal of licensure of candidate medical countermeasures by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the radiation/nuclear public health emergency indication.

The NIAID Radiation/Nuclear Countermeasures Development Program supports extramural research to develop safe and effective radiological/nuclear medical countermeasures for clinical use under emergency situations. This program spans basic through applied research. The role of the endovascular network in radiation injury pathogenesis is not well understood; however, the importance of this biological system in the observed multi-organ dysfunction and failure that occurs following radiation exposure has recently been established. The purpose of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to provide an opportunity for academic, industry and government laboratory researchers to address gaps in the understanding of the pathophysiology of radiation injury in the vasculature, and how this damage contributes to overall mortality following radiation exposure. This funding will also advance the development of post-exposure treatment approaches targeting the vascular endothelium, with the ultimate goal of licensure of candidate medical countermeasures by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the radiation/nuclear public health emergency indication.   

This call is open to all respondents, and we particularly encourage proposals from the private sector and/or entities that have partnerships with the private sector - to ensure a pathway to commercialization at scale. Our first principle is to leverage existing innovation within the food and beverage industry and its suppliers for new applications that can reach low-income consumers, for greatest scale and impact. We also welcome technologies and translational approaches based on knowledge from ancillary fields, e.g., veterinary science, pharmaceuticals, etc.

Beginning in 2011, the American Academy of Microbiology (Academy) will provide a one-year fellowship to a recent microbiology PhD recipient. The Academy is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the world's oldest and largest life science organization. The mission of the Academy is to recognize scientists for outstanding contributions to microbiology and provide microbiological expertise in the service of science and the public. To this end, each year the Academy convenes five to six colloquia to address critical issues in microbiology. Colloquium reports are used by governmental agencies, industry, educators and the scientific and lay communities. The field of microbiology is broad and microbiologists have much to contribute to solving societal challenges in health, food, energy and the environment. Communicating the excitement and potential benefits of advances in microbiology is critically important to attract the next generation of students into the field, to educate and inform the public and to justify continued investment in microbiology research. In addition to academic researchers and clinicians, the field of microbiology needs individuals who are skilled in science communication and public outreach. The goal of the AAM Colloquium fellowship is to provide an opportunity for a recent microbiology PhD graduate to develop these skills. The fellow will work closely with the Academy Director on the colloquium program, participating in the entire process from choosing appropriate topics through proposal development and fund-raising to writing colloquium reports to publicity and dissemination.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to encourage biomedical, behavioral, and social science research that will inform the development and evaluation of regulations on tobacco product manufacturing, distribution, and marketing.  Research projects must address the research priorities related to the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) as mandated by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (FSPTCA), Public Law 111-31. The awards under this FOA will be administered by NIH using designated funds from the FDA CTP for tobacco regulatory science. Research results from this FOA are expected to generate findings and data that are directly relevant to inform the FDA's regulation of the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products to protect public health.