Strengthening the Diagnostic Transport Network in Liberia | CDC RFA GH19 1961

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH19 1961

The grant opportunity titled "Strengthening the Diagnostic Transport Network in Liberia" is a CDC-led cooperative agreement designed to improve how quickly and reliably clinical specimens move from health facilities, including remote sites, to designated laboratories for advanced testing. The core public health problem it addresses is straightforward: even the best surveillance system cannot trigger an effective outbreak response if suspected cases are not confirmed in time through laboratory diagnosis. After the 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak, Liberia and its partners built stronger alert and response capacities, but sustaining those gains depends heavily on a specimen transport system that can consistently deliver samples to labs fast enough to guide real-time decisions. The CDC is positioning this work as a practical, system-level investment that strengthens outbreak detection and response for EVD and for other high-risk infectious diseases with epidemic potential.

The opportunity is grounded in lessons from the Ebola epidemic, when Liberia had no established nationwide mechanism to move clinical samples from rural and hard-to-reach communities to diagnostic laboratories. That gap contributed to delays in confirmation, which in turn increased opportunities for transmission. The CDC notes that since 2015, efforts to develop and implement a more robust specimen transport network have shown clear value: a flexible transport model is a crucial building block for a resilient health system, because it allows priority diseases to be detected efficiently and consistently. Importantly, the network is not framed as Ebola-only infrastructure. It is described as a broad diagnostic backbone that has already supported detection and control of multiple outbreaks beyond EVD, including meningococcal disease, Lassa fever, shigellosis, measles, and others.

A central expectation of the program is that the diagnostic transport model must be able to integrate fully into Liberia's public health system across all 15 counties, with clear Government of Liberia (GOL) ownership supported by an enabling policy environment. In practice, that means the system cannot operate as a parallel project; it needs to align with Ministry of Health structures, national and regional laboratory networks, and routine surveillance operations. The CDC emphasizes that an effective transport network depends on strong collaboration and communication across many levels of the system, including county and district health facilities, county diagnostic officers, county and district surveillance officers, laboratories, the Ministry of Health, and other relevant government entities. The overall picture is a coordinated national logistics and communication chain that reduces delays from sample collection to confirmed result.

The public health impact the CDC is targeting is faster confirmation of suspected infectious diseases so response actions can begin immediately. Timely diagnosis supports rapid isolation of patients, which reduces the number of contacts and lowers the risk of wider transmission. It also reduces the burden and cost of response by shrinking the scope of contact tracing, quarantine, and monitoring activities. In other words, improving specimen transport is presented as a way to make Liberia's outbreak response both more effective and more resource-efficient, especially when dealing with fast-moving threats where days (or even hours) matter.

This funding opportunity is explicitly aligned with the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) priorities to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats. The transport network is positioned as a key enabler of real-time biosurveillance and timely diagnostics, translating alerts and suspected cases into actionable laboratory confirmation. The CDC also frames the award as part of a broader ecosystem of investments by the US Government and other partners in areas like surveillance systems, data management, workforce development, laboratory strengthening, and emergency management and response. The intended outcome is a more capable national public health infrastructure that can identify and contain future outbreaks earlier, before they grow into large-scale epidemics.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a discretionary funding opportunity from the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under a cooperative agreement mechanism, which generally implies substantial CDC involvement and collaboration during implementation. The funding opportunity number is CDC RFA GH19 1961, listed under CFDA 93.318. Eligibility is described as unrestricted (open to any type of entity), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications in the full notice. The anticipated funding level includes an award ceiling of $2,000,000, with one expected award. The original posting date is May 1, 2019, with an original closing date of May 30, 2019, and applications due electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.

Overall, the grant is best understood as a national system-strengthening effort focused on the operational details that determine whether suspected outbreaks are confirmed quickly: reliable specimen movement, coordinated communication, and full integration with Liberia's surveillance and laboratory networks under GOL leadership. The rationale is that a strong diagnostic transport network turns surveillance signals into confirmed diagnoses faster, enabling earlier containment for Ebola and a wide range of other epidemic-prone diseases.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Strengthening the Diagnostic Transport Network in Liberia" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.318.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 01, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 30, 2019 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (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 $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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