US: Renewal – Native American Tribes Outreach, Education, and Training to Enhance Food Safety and FSMA Compliance

Deadline: 29-Apr-22

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is pleased to announe a funding call for the Renewal – Native American Tribes Outreach, Education, and Training to Enhance Food Safety and FSMA Compliance.

Projects will research and identify outreach, education, training and technical assistance needs; and develop and adapt materials; and deliver training that facilitate the integration and understanding of federal food safety regulations and guidance among Native American tribes involved in agricultural produce production and food manufacturing/process, while taking into account tribal historical, cultural, and regional agricultural production and processing practices.

Applications must address all of the following: 

• Demonstrate an ability to reach the target audience and an ability to collaborate and lead relevant partners that also work with the target audience on relevant areas. Such partners include tribal academic institutions, tribal governments, land grant cooperative extension, federally recognized tribal extension agents, tribal NGOs and community-based organizations, and federal agencies with a role in food safety such as the USDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Indian Health Service;
• Demonstrate an ability to develop and implement a training plan that includes project goals that shall significantly advance tribal stakeholders understanding of on-farm produce and food manufacturing/processing safety, taking into account existing materials and also specific cultural practices within tribes and regions, and ultimately increase understanding of the requirements of the Produce Safety and Preventive Controls for Human Food rules as well as other federal preventive controls standards to facilitate and support compliance;
• Conduct a training, education, and technical assistance needs assessment so that training, education, and outreach can be prioritized within the scope of this cooperative agreement and appropriate resources for technical assistance can be identified;
• Develop science-based, culturally appropriate training, outreach and educational materials and tools, around the FSMA regulations, especially the Produce Safety rule and Preventive Controls for Human Food rule, for federally recognized tribes.  Targeted training and educational materials will be based upon existing produce and human food safety training and educational materials (e.g., FSMA Alliances) to the extent practicable and will address specific (documented and itemized) regional needs where appropriate while otherwise providing for national uniformity;
• Identify culturally appropriate delivery vehicles for the training, outreach, and educational materials as well as mechanisms to connect with technical assistance resources for federally recognized tribes;
• Identify and quantitatively characterize the top 20%, but no more than 50 total, of tribes that engage in commercial production of covered produce under the Produce Safety rule as well as the top 20%, but no more than 50 total, of tribes engaged in commercial production of food covered under the Preventive Controls for Human Foods rule; and include within this group, identification of tribes with mixed-type operations;
• Foster and/or strengthen an integrated working relationship between the Federally-Recognized Tribes Extension Program extension educators, 1994 tribal land-grant colleges and universities, FDA and other partners including the FSMA Alliances (Produce Safety Alliance, Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance and Sprout Safety Alliances), the FDA National Coordination Center and FDA/USDA Regional Centers established under the “National Food Safety Training, Education, Extension, Outreach and Technical Assistance Program;"
• Identify and provide contacts for future tribal food safety engagement as applicable to this cooperative agreement and subsequent related activity;
• Identify and characterize existing education and training programs within federally recognized tribes related to on-farm produce and food manufacturing/processing safety;
• Identify and conduct outreach opportunities relative to these overall priorities so that tribal member produce growers and food manufacturers/processors are aware of the availability of training, educational materials and technical assistance opportunities;
• Work collaboratively to foster an integrated working relationship with the various FSMA alliances (Produce Safety Alliance, Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance and Sprouts Safety Alliance).

Funding Information

• Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards: CFSAN intends to commit up to $500,000 in FY 2022 to fund one (1) award.
• Award Budget: Application budgets need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project and should not exceed the following in total costs (direct and indirect): YR 01: $500,000
• Award Project Period: The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is one (1) year.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible Organizations
  • University of Arkansas – Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative (IFAI)
• Foreign Institutions
  • Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.
  • Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.
• Program Directors/Principal Investigators (PD(s)/PI(s))
  • All PD(s)/PI(s) must have an eRA Commons account.  PD(s)/PI(s) should work with their organizational officials to either create a new account or to affiliate their existing account with the applicant organization in eRA Commons. If the PD/PI is also the organizational Signing Official, they must have two distinct eRA Commons accounts, one for each role. Obtaining an eRA Commons account can take up to 2 weeks.
• Eligible Individuals (Program Director/Principal Investigator)
  • Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with his/her organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for FDA support.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.

For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=338389