Centers of Excellence to Enhance Disease Detection in Newborns | CDC RFA EH 24 0044

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA EH 24 0044

The Centers of Excellence to Enhance Disease Detection in Newborns opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number CDC RFA EH 24 0044) is a four-year cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), within NCEH, focused on strengthening and modernizing public health laboratory newborn screening (NBS). Newborn screening has relied heavily on dried blood spots for decades and has steadily expanded as new laboratory methods have become practical for routine public health use. This announcement is aimed at helping NBS programs take the next step by building the capacity to adopt and integrate advanced technologies that can improve early detection, especially as screening panels and expectations continue to grow.

The core purpose is to establish a single Newborn Screening Center of Excellence housed in a public health laboratory that can serve as a proving ground and leader for advanced testing approaches. The project is structured around three main goals. First, the recipient is expected to develop the infrastructure needed to implement existing advanced technologies in a way that expands overall screening system capacity, meaning the ability to handle more conditions, more complexity, and potentially higher throughput without sacrificing reliability. Second, the recipient will apply advanced technologies as second-tier and third-tier tests, which are follow-up methods used after an initial screen to confirm, clarify, or refine results. This is a practical focus because better second- and third-tier testing can reduce false positives, improve specificity, and help ensure infants who truly need rapid follow-up are identified as quickly and accurately as possible. Third, the Center of Excellence must incorporate bioinformatics to interpret complex biochemical and molecular data, acknowledging that tools like next generation whole genome sequencing and high-resolution mass spectrometry produce large, intricate datasets that require specialized analytical workflows and expertise.

A major theme of the award is real-world piloting and knowledge sharing rather than isolated, one-off development. Over the project period, the recipient will pilot methods that enhance NBS practices in public health laboratories and will collaborate with the broader newborn screening community to share findings, lessons learned, and approaches that can be replicated. The cooperative agreement structure also signals a hands-on partnership with CDC subject-matter experts, particularly around data harmonization and modernization. In practice, that implies the awardee will not only test and implement technologies, but will also align data approaches and reporting practices in ways that support broader consistency, comparability, and modernization across programs.

Eligibility is tied to operational newborn screening systems. Applicants must represent, or be an administrative partner to, an established state or territorial newborn screening program, and they must be able to implement and sustain new newborn screening programs in a U.S. state or territory. While the eligibility field is listed as unrestricted in the source data, the narrative requirements effectively narrow the applicant pool to entities closely connected to state or territorial NBS operations and capable of sustaining programmatic advancements beyond the pilot phase.

From a funding standpoint, the opportunity is listed as a discretionary award with a cooperative agreement instrument type under the health activity category (CFDA/Assistance Listing 93.065). CDC expects to make one award, with an award ceiling of $1,000,000. The opportunity was created on 2024-04-04, and the original closing date was 2024-06-04. Overall, the grant is designed to position newborn screening programs to better absorb advanced technologies, manage increasing demand, and improve the performance and modernization of disease detection systems for newborns.

• The Centers for Disease Control - NCEH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Centers of Excellence to Enhance Disease Detection in Newborns" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.065.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-04-04.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-06-04. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for CDC RFA EH 24 0044

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