Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA IP 24 046

The CDC is soliciting applications for a single cooperative agreement to build and maintain a large, nationwide, longitudinal cohort of repeat blood donors that can be used to track immunity and infection patterns for SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses over time. The core idea is to leverage routine blood donation from the same individuals repeatedly, measure antibody levels (quantitative titers) at regular intervals, and pair those lab measurements with participant surveys about exposures and health history. By combining serial antibody data with survey data, the program is meant to estimate how much infection is occurring, who is getting infected, what factors increase risk, and how immunity changes after infection or vaccination.

A major motivation for this opportunity comes from what CDC learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between 2020 and 2022, CDC funded national serosurveillance efforts that repeatedly measured antibodies and collected surveys to monitor infection burden, risk factors, and the durability of immune responses across different populations and geographies in the United States. Over that period, CDC and partners developed and tested analytic methods that use quantitative antibody titers to infer new infections or reinfections, even when a large share of the population is already antibody-positive (high seroprevalence). This grant is essentially designed to carry that infrastructure forward and adapt it to the current stage of COVID-19 while extending the approach to other respiratory viruses as assays and validation work become available.

The project’s deliverable is a sustained cohort at national scale, specified as greater than 50,000 people, made up of repeat blood donors who can be followed over time. The awardee would be expected to establish the operational pipeline for enrolling and retaining donors, collecting repeated specimens, running or coordinating antibody testing, and administering regular surveys. The surveys are intended to capture information that helps interpret antibody patterns, such as vaccination status, potential risk factors for infection, respiratory symptoms, and indicators of severe illness. In addition to near-term surveillance, the opportunity explicitly calls for establishing a specimen and data repository that can support future analyses, especially as new laboratory assays are developed to measure immune responses to respiratory virus infections more precisely or in new ways.

The CDC describes four main public health aims for the cohort. First, it should be able to estimate the national burden of incident SARS-CoV-2 infection on an ongoing basis and then expand that same capability to other respiratory viruses as technology allows. Viruses named as examples include Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), influenza, human metapneumovirus, enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), and potentially others, reflecting an intent to build a flexible platform rather than a one-virus system. Second, the cohort should support work to determine antibody thresholds associated with protection across multiple respiratory viruses, which is important for interpreting what measured antibody levels mean in real-world terms. Third, it should enable state- or region-specific snapshots of population-level immunity and infection risk by tracking distributions and trends in antibody titers (for example, median titers) across subpopulations and geographies. Fourth, it should monitor waning immunity and shifts in immune effectiveness as viruses evolve, which is particularly relevant for pathogens like SARS-CoV-2 and influenza that change over time and can partially evade prior immunity.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), offered through a cooperative agreement mechanism, which typically means CDC will have substantial programmatic involvement compared with a standard grant. The opportunity is in the health activity category and is associated with CFDA number 93.083. The funding opportunity number is RFA IP 24 046, and it was created on 2023-12-12 with an original application closing date of 2024-02-16. CDC expects to make one award, with an award ceiling of $4,500,000.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of public and private entities that could plausibly run a national donor-based surveillance cohort. Eligible applicants include state, county, city or township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations both with and without 501(c)(3) status (as long as they are not institutions of higher education); and for-profit organizations other than small businesses. In practical terms, the opportunity seems designed to allow participation from academic centers, large blood collection organizations and their partners, public health-aligned nonprofits, and other entities capable of coordinating multi-site operations, laboratory testing, data management, and long-term follow-up at national scale.

Overall, the grant is aimed at creating a durable, scalable seroepidemiology platform that can keep pace with changing respiratory virus threats. Instead of relying on one-off surveys or short-term studies, the CDC is funding a continuous, repeat-measure system that can quantify new infections, identify drivers of risk and severity, interpret immunity levels over time, and rapidly pivot to additional respiratory viruses as assays mature. The emphasis on a repository and on adaptable analytic methods signals that CDC wants the cohort to remain useful not only for immediate surveillance, but also for future scientific and public health questions as new variants, vaccines, and testing technologies emerge.

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - ERA in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Nationwide Cohort to Estimate Burden of Respiratory Viruses and Immunologic Response (Blood Donor Cohort)" and is now available to receive applicants.
  • Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.083.
  • This funding opportunity was created on 2023-12-12.
  • Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-02-16. (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 $4,500,000.00 in funding.
  • The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
  • Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses.
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