Deadline: 23-Jul-2025
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is 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 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 FOA is intended to maintain and improve the detection of antibiotics resistance among bacteria in food commodities by funding new and existing sites to conduct routine sampling and testing of retail food commodities.
Purpose
- FDA announces the availability of fiscal year (FY) 2025 funds to enhance and strengthen antibiotic resistance surveillance in retail food specimens within the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). This cooperative agreement with the NARMS retail food surveillance program will enable research and investigations for the collection of critical data to help inform public health stakeholders.
- Data from investigations conducted by applicants will assist in developing pre-approval safety evaluation of new animal antibiotics, determining parameters for the antimicrobial use in veterinary medicine, and the ability of public health actors to provide information to promote interventions to reduce resistance among foodborne bacteria. This cooperative agreement will address NARMS programmatic needs to implement effective surveillance and response for antibiotic resistance as recommended in the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB).
- The chief goal of the NARMS food surveillance program is to monitor for antimicrobial resistance among enteric bacteria in raw retail meat commodities. This cooperative agreement will address NARMS programmatic needs to implement effective surveillance and response for antibiotic resistance as recommended in the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (CARB). The chief goal of the NARMS food surveillance program is to improve the detection of and surveillance for antimicrobial resistance among enteric bacteria in raw retail meat commodities.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $ 5,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $200,000
Duration
- The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is five (5) years.
Project Activities
- Specific activities supported by this cooperative agreement include but are not limited to those listed below:
- Actively participate in NARMS conference calls and working groups
- Implement the NARMS sampling and laboratory protocols to ensure standardized methodologies.
- Implement standardized data collection and isolate transmission protocols.
- Provide FDA with a list of sampling areas that meet the NARMS sampling requirements.
- Collect fresh retail meat at a minimum of 2 non-consecutive days per month from pre-selected retail locations.
- Perform microbiological tests on fresh retail meat samples for Salmonella and Campylobacter.
- Option to perform microbiological tests on fresh retail meat samples for Escherichia coli and Enterococcus
- Perform microbiological tests on seafood samples for Enterococcus, Aeromonas, and Vibrio.
Outcomes
- Applicant will be able to perform microbiological tests, as described in the project protocol, of the total samples required by the FDA
- Applicant will be able to use microbiological results from the project to analyze quality assurance practices
- Applicant will be able to integrate surveillance activities with FDA
- Applicant will be able to exchange relevant and complete surveillance data with FDA and their local public health agencies
- Applicant will be able to use data to inform program and policy development
- Applicant will be able to employ data for education on current and emerging hazards
- Applicant will be able to support awareness of antimicrobial resistance among the public
- Applicant will be able to identify foodborne illness outbreaks and coordinate outbreak investigations with the local and state public health agencies as well as the FDA
- Applicant will be able to analyze antimicrobial resistance data for their catchment area over time
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Organizations
- Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- For-Profit Organizations
- Small Businesses
- For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
- Local Governments
- State Governments
- County Governments
- City or Township Governments
- Special District Governments
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
- Federal Governments
- Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
- U.S. Territory or Possession
- Other
- Independent School Districts
- Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
- Native American Tribal Organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments)
- Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
- Regional Organizations
- Foreign Organizations
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations) are not eligible to apply.
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.
- Higher Education Institutions
For more information, visit Grants.gov.