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In September 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission issued a report entitled “America’s Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network.” In this report, the Commission documented that the existing environmental health systems were inadequate and fragmented and recommended a “Nationwide Health Tracking Network for disease and exposures.” In response to the report, Congress appropriated funds in the fiscal year 2002’s budget for the CDC to address this issue. What is Environmental Public Health Tracking? Environmental Public Health Tracking (Tracking) is the integrated surveillance of health, exposure, and hazard information and data from a variety of national, state, and local sources. These systems are critical in preventing and controlling disease in populations. Having accurate and timely tracking data permits public health authorities to determine temporal and spatial trends in disease and potential environmental exposures, identify populations most affected, and develop and assess the effectiveness of policy and environmental public health interventions. Tracking involves the utilization of data and information regarding health outcomes, environmental hazards, and human exposures, or a combination of them, and provides important information for public health practice. The availability of these types of data in a standardized network will enable researchers, public health authorities, healthcare practitioners, and the public to have a better understanding about the possible associations between the environment and adverse health effects. What is the National Tracking Network? A key characteristic of Tracking is the emphasis on data integration across health, human exposure, and hazard information systems. The National Tracking Network (Tracking Network) provides the United States with standardized data from multiple health, exposure, and hazard information systems that includes linka

This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant Program (¿Network Planning¿).   The purpose of the Network Planning program is to assist in the development of an integrated healthcare network, if the network participants do not have a history of formal collaborative efforts.  Health care networks can be an effective strategy to help smaller rural health care providers and health care service organizations align resources and strategies, achieve economies of scale and efficiency, and address challenges more effectively as a group than as single providers.  The Network Planning program promotes the planning and development of healthcare networks in order to: (i) achieve efficiencies; (ii) expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and (iii) strengthen the rural health care system as a whole.  The health care system is undergoing a significant amount of change and this can be particularly challenging for small rural providers.  The goals of the Network Planning program represent ways to help rural providers better serve their communities given changes taking place in health care, as providers move from focusing on the volume of services to focusing on the value of services.  This program brings together key parts of a rural health care delivery system, particularly those entities that may not have collaborated in the past under a formal relationship, to work together to establish and improve local capacity and coordination of care.  Furthermore, this program supports one year of planning with the primary goal of helping networks create a foundation for their infrastructure and focusing member efforts to address important regional or local community health needs.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2015 Statewide Peer Networks for Recovery and Resiliency (Short Title: Statewide Peer Networks for R&R) grants. The purpose of this grant program is to create and/or enhance statewide networks that represent mental health and addictions recovery communities to improve access to and the quality of behavioral health systems, services, treatment and recovery supports statewide. Formal SAMHSA-funded networks already exist in many states for specific recovery and family communities; this program is designed specifically to bridge and unify recovery networks for mental health consumers, families of children with serious emotional disturbance and youth, as well as those in recovery from addictions. Current SAMHSA-funded Recovery Community Services Program-Statewide Networks (RCSP-SNs), and current and formerly-funded Statewide Consumer Networks (SCNs) grants and Statewide Family Networks (SFNs) will work together to enhance and promote cross-service system, peer workforce, and infrastructure development that is recovery-focused and resiliency-oriented. This program builds on the FY 2014 program for RCSP-SNs, SFNs, and SCNs to develop intentional, collaborative efforts via Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) and sharing of fiscal resources. The intent of this program is for RCSP-SN, SFN, and SCN grantees within a state to form a collaboration that will develop a strategic plan, share resources, engage in cross-training, increase capacity to affect behavioral health systems change at the state and local levels, and to improve behavioral health outcomes for persons in recovery from serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders, and family members of children with serious emotional disturbances and youth/young adults. Statewide Peer Networks for R&R are authorized under S

The purpose of this program is to support integrated rural health care networks that have combined the functions of the entities participating in the network, including skilled and experienced staff and a high functioning network board, in order to address the health care needs of the targeted rural community. Recipients will combine the functions of the entities participating in the network to address the following legislative aims: (i) achieve efficiencies; (ii) expand access, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and (iii) strengthen the rural health care system as a whole. The RHND Program encourages innovative solutions to local health care needs identified by local communities and supports rural communities in preparing for changes within the health care environment. Furthermore, the program creates an opportunity for rural health networks to collaboratively address the key priorities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): mental health, substance use disorder, and value-based care. The overarching goals for the RHND Program are to: * Improve access and quality of health care in rural areas through sustainable health care programs created as a result of network collaboration; * Prepare rural health networks for the transition to value-based payment and population health management; * Demonstrate improved health outcomes and community impact; * Promote the sustainability of rural health networks through the creation of diverse products and services; * Utilize and/or adapt an evidence-based or promising practice model(s) in the delivery of health care services.

This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Network Development (RHND) Program.  The purpose of this program is to support mature, integrated rural health care networks that have combined the functions of the entities participating in the network in order to address the health care needs of the targeted rural community.  Awardees will combine the functions of the entities participating in the network to address the following statutory charges:  (i) achieve efficiencies; (ii) expand access, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and (iii) strengthen the rural health care system as a whole.

This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Network Development (RHND) Program.  The purpose of this program is to support mature, integrated rural health care networks that have combined the functions of the entities participating in the network in order to address the health care needs of the targeted rural community.  Awardees will combine the functions of the entities participating in the network to address the following statutory charges:  (i) achieve efficiencies; (ii) expand access, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and (iii) strengthen the rural health care system as a whole.

This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the Rural Health Network Development Planning Program ("Network Planning"). Health care networks can be an effective strategy to help smaller rural health care providers and health care service organizations align resources and strategies, achieve economies of scale and efficiencies, and address challenges more effectively as a group than as single providers. For example, a critical access hospital, a community health center, and a public health department may collaborate to form a network around a shared purpose. Other examples of health care providers could be: hospitals, public health agencies, home health providers, mental health centers, substance abuse service providers, rural health clinics, primary care providers, oral health providers, social service agencies, health profession schools, local school districts, emergency services providers, community and migrant health centers, federally-qualified health centers, tribal health programs, churches, faith-based organizations, and civic organizations that are/will be providing health care. The goals of the Network Planning program are centered around approaches that will aid providers in better serving their communities given the changes taking place in health care, as providers transition from focusing on the volume of services to focusing on the value of services. The intent is that rural health networks will expand access to care, increase the use of health information technology, explore alternative health care delivery models, and continue to achieve quality health care across the continuum of care from prevention and wellness to acute and long-term care.

The RCMI Research Coordination Network (RRCN), formerly known as the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN), was established in 2007 to enhance collaboration across RCMI institutions. The network is designed to engage all stakeholders in the RCMI institutions, increase the quality and efficiency of basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research, facilitate study participant recruitment and retention, and increase the efficiency of the implementation and dissemination of research advances to improved health outcomes among minority and health disparity populations. Maintaining the longstanding networking and collaboration with the RCMI grantee community is key to the continued success of this program. The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to provide infrastructure and research funding to support overall network coordination and collaboration, and to expand the Research Coordinating Center (RCC) and Data Coordinating Center (DCC) functions of the RRCN.

In September 2000, the Pew Environmental Health Commission issued a report entitled America’s Environmental Health Gap: Why the Country Needs a Nationwide Health Tracking Network. In this report, the Commission documented that the existing environmental health systems were inadequate and fragmented and recommended a “Nationwide Health Tracking Network for disease and exposures.” In response to the report, Congress appropriated funds in the fiscal year 2002’s budget for the CDC to establish National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program and Tracking Network and has appropriated funds each year thereafter to continue this effort. Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) is the integrated surveillance of health, exposure, and hazard information and data from a variety of national, state, and local sources. The Tracking Network is unique in that it provides the United States with accurate and timely standardized data and supports ongoing efforts within the public health and environmental sectors to improve data collection, accessibility, and dissemination as well as analytic and response capacity. Data that were previously collected for different purposes and stored in separate systems are now available in a nationally standardized format allowing programs to begin bridging the gap between health and the environment.

This announcement solicits applications for the Rural Health Care Coordination Network Partnership Program (Care Coordination Program). The purpose of the Rural Health Care Coordination Network Partnership Program is to support the development of formal, mature rural health networks that focus on care coordination activities for the following chronic conditions: diabetes, congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Care coordination in the primary care practice involves deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all of the participants concerned with a patient¿s care to achieve safer and more effective care. Rural Americans are unhealthier, with higher rates of chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, CHF, and COPD and have higher rates of high-risk behaviors such as smoking, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition.[1],[2],[3],[4] These high-risk behaviors cause many of the illnesses, suffering and deaths due to chronic diseases and conditions.[5] The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and the high cost of health care in the U.S. bring treatment of the ¿whole¿ person to the forefront, especially as there are often psychosocial (psychological and social) issues related to chronic diseases; for example, there is a link between diabetes and depression. In addition, more mental health problems are seen in the primary care setting than other health care settings; thus, integrating behavioral health care into primary care helps address both the physical and psychosocial aspects of health and wellness. Reviews and reports from the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) have shown a positive impact from integrating a team approach to care for a variety of disease conditions.[6] Health care coordination for people living with chronic conditions is vital to providing high quality care, especially in rural areas where access to health care is an issue. The main goal of care coordi

This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding under the U5D MCH Pediatric Research Network (PedsRN) Program. The purpose of this program is to establish and maintain an interdisciplinary, national, multi-site research platform for scientific collaboration and infrastructure building. The Research Network will provide national leadership for applied and translational practice-based pediatric research and interventions to advance the evidence base for pediatric practice. PedsRN will accomplish this by supporting: collaborative practice-based research aimed at enhancing primary care practice, the development of evidence-based guidelines based on network research findings, and dissemination of findings in order to accelerate the translation of research into practice. The Research Network will identify effective practices to promote children's health in primary care settings. This will be accomplished through the establishment and ongoing development of a national network of primary care and child health professionals. These health care professionals will collaborate in the development and implementation of research designed to increase knowledge of pediatric care.

Supported by the NIH Common Fund (Common Fund) Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Program, this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits competitive revision (formerly known as a competitive supplement) applications to NIH-supported clinical trials awarded as research project R34 grants. The goal of the SOBC Program is to advance a mechanisms-focused, experimental medicine approach to behavior change research. Funded projects in the SOBC Research Network (https://commonfund.nih.gov/behaviorchange/fundedresearch) have developed experimental manipulations, assays, and/or measures (hereafter referred to as assays for brevity) to support an experimental medicine approach to behavior change research. The SOBC Measures Repository is accessible from the SOBC Research Network Open Science Framework (OSF) page at https://osf.io/zp7b4. The goal of this FOA is to accelerate the adaptation, validation, and translation of SOBC Research Network assays for use in ongoing clinical trials. This FOA calls for the integration of SOBC Research Network assays into active NIH-supported clinical trials of drugs, devices, procedures, or behavior modifications. As such, the active NIH-supported clinical trial used to respond to this FOA does not have to be a behavior change trial or identify behavior change as a primary outcome. The integration of SOBC Research Network assays into ongoing clinical trials will accelerate the development of interventions and experimental manipulations that have been shown to engage specific mechanisms of behavior change and the development of assays that verify engagement of those behavior change targets.

Supported by the American Heart Association Strategically Focused Research Networks, there is a two-year postdoctoral fellowship opportunity listed by institution for the funded research networks. Fellows with a strong interest in either prevention, hypertension, disparities, women's health, or heart failure-related to cardiovascular disease and/or stroke research, commitment to multi-disciplinary team science approach at the population, clinical and basic science levels and excellent communication skills. The center fellow will be highly involved in the projects being proposed by their institution, will be encouraged to collaborate with fellows across the network, and work closely with their Center Director and Training Director on their Center's individualized multidisciplinary training plan. Please refer to the SFRN Awardees webpage for a detailed list of each institution's projects within the networks

This notice announces the opportunity to apply for funding for the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Measurement Research Network (MRN) Program. The purpose of this program is to coordinate a national platform to recruit, convene, and actively engage researchers and family members to identify and fill gaps in existing MCH measures. This national MRN is an interdisciplinary Research Network focused on supporting, optimizing, and centralizing MCH-related health measurement research (hereafter referred to as "the Network"). The cooperative agreement will establish and maintain an interdisciplinary, multi-site, collaborative Network that will lead, promote, and coordinate national research activities to highlight and advance health measurement research, and where appropriate, build on existing work in the field. Research activities include developing new measures or validating existing measures across different MCH priority topic areas, produce an evolving compendium of both validated and non-validated or pilot MCH measures, identify gaps in existing measures for future research purposes, and facilitate implementation and dissemination of appropriate tools and resources critical for informing research and practice for MCH populations.

 The RCMI Research Coordination Network (RRCN), formerly known as the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN), was established in 2007 to enhance collaboration across RCMI institutions.  The network is designed to engage all stakeholders in the RCMI institutions, increase the quality and efficiency of basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research, facilitate study participant recruitment and retention, and increase the efficiency of the implementation and dissemination of research advances to improved health outcomes among minority and health disparity populations. Maintaining the longstanding networking and collaboration with the RCMI grantee community is key to the continued success of this program.

Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) is the integrated surveillance of health, exposure, and hazard information and data from a variety of national, state, and local sources. The Tracking Network is unique in that it provides the United States with accurate and timely standardized data and supports ongoing efforts within the public health and environmental sectors to improve data collection, accessibility, and dissemination as well as analytic and response capacity. Data that were previously collected for different purposes and stored in separate systems are now available in a nationally standardized format allowing programs to begin bridging the gap between health and the environment. Having accurate and timely tracking data enables public health authorities to determine temporal and spatial trends in disease and potential environmental exposures, identify populations most affected, and develop and assess the environmental public health policies and interventions aimed at reducing or eliminating diseases associated with environmental factors. The availability of these types of data in a standardized network provide researchers, public health authorities, healthcare practitioners, and the public to have a better understanding about the possible associations between the environment and adverse health effects, and to assist them with decision making. The approach of this NOFO is to assist in addressing the above mentioned data issues by facilitating access to existing statewide electronic hospital discharge and emergency department data and reducing barriers to access this data.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support enhanced human and animal food safety by strengthening the capacity, collaboration, and integration of food-safety laboratories and networks, thereby facilitating an effective and coordinated response to future human and animal food safety issues. The current FOA solicits applications from FDA's Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network laboratories for research related to emerging public food safety issues identified by the Vet-LIRN network office (VPO), for equipment and personnel necessary to expand laboratory capability and capacity, and for other related activities. This cooperative agreement program is intended to build domestic laboratory capacity as put forth in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), by developing the Vet-LIRN laboratory Network capabilities and capacity to investigate potential animal foodborne illness outbreaks.

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to support enhanced human and animal food safety by strengthening the capacity, collaboration, and integration of food-safety laboratories and networks, thereby facilitating an effective and coordinated response to future human and animal food safety issues. The current FOA solicits applications from FDA's Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network laboratories for research related to emerging public food safety issues identified by the Vet-LIRN network office (VPO), for equipment and personnel necessary to expand laboratory capability and capacity, and for other related activities. This cooperative agreement program is intended to build domestic laboratory capacity as put forth in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), by developing the Vet-LIRN laboratory Network capabilities and capacity to investigate potential animal foodborne illness outbreaks.

Access to quality assured diagnostics and laboratory services is critical to the effective diagnosis, treatment, and management of HIV and other HIV-related diseases, including TB. Achieving an AIDS-Free Generation and the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets requires establishment and operationalization of laboratory and diagnostic networks, including strong and sustainable collaborations with partners.To date, PEPFAR-supported laboratory and integrated diagnostic network strengthening efforts have led to improved access to the quality diagnostic and patient monitoring services required to support the HIV clinical cascade. However, work remains to establish and maintain the partnerships and collaborations required to support these efforts. This NOFO will focus on building and strengthening sustainable networks and partnerships to support laboratory systems, policies, and data use in PEPFAR-supported countries; improving in-service laboratory safety and science competencies through quality training for laboratory professionals; collaborations across partner organizations, laboratory professionals, and clinicians; strengthened public health laboratory and diagnostic network capacity, quality, and functionality; and improved access to high quality and effective technical assistance (TA) resources.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is associated with the Beau Biden Cancer MoonshotSM Initiative that is intended to accelerate cancer research. Specifically, this FOA targets the following area designated as scientific priority by the Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP): Recommendation B. Create a translational science network devoted exclusively to immunotherapy approaches to treat and prevent adult cancers. The goal of the network is to foster collaborative team science approaches to accelerate the discover of new immune targets and evaluate novel immune-based therapies and combination approaches that eliminate established cancers in adults or to prevent cancers before they occur. The purpose of this FOA is to establish a Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) composed of organ site-specific Cancer Immunotherapy Research Projects as a component of the Immuno-Oncology Translation Network (IOTN). The CIC will form an integrated network of multi-disciplinary, collaborative teams with the overarching goals of accelerating translational research of innate and adaptive immune mechanisms that contribute to tumor progression, and evaluating new or improved immunotherapeutic strategies (including combinations with standard or other therapies) resulting in durable anti-cancer responses. Studies should be largely pre-clinical involving clinically-relevant models and endpoints.

Reliable, efficient laboratory services and networks are fundamental components of effective, well-functioning health systems and are essential for patient management, disease detection and control and surveillance. The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to support the Ministry of Health in Mozambique to strengthen the integrated national laboratory network in order to ensure the provision of quality laboratory services for clinical diagnosis, screening, research, and surveillance to support HIV care and treatment and the achievement of an AIDS free generation. The FOA will address the following cross-cutting elements of laboratory systems: governance and management of the integrated laboratory network, strengthening institutions to build and retain a quality laboratory workforce, and building technical and scientific capacity and implementing quality management systems towards accreditation. The expected project outcomes include:* Increased efficiency of laboratory network operations* Increased implementation of quality management systems through a technically and financially sustainable quality improvement and accreditation program owned and implemented by the Ministry of Health* An increase in the coverage and quality of external quality assessment (EQA) services* Improved adherence to laboratory biosafety standards* Improved quality of laboratory pre-service training * Increase in number of laboratory managers and leaders with Master's level training* Improved capacity of laboratory workforce and decreased reliance on external training support