[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 69 (Thursday, April 10, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17649-17652]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-8746]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[Program Announcement 03048]


Cooperative Agreement for Collaborating Centers for Public Health 
Law; Notice of Availability of Funds

    Application Deadline: June 9, 2003.

A. Authority and Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number

    This program is authorized under sections 301 and 311 of the Public 
Health Service Act, [42 U.S.C. sections 241, 242, and 243], as amended. 
The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number is 93.283.

B. Purpose

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announces the 
availability of fiscal year (FY) 2003 funds for a cooperative agreement 
for Collaborating Centers for Public Health Law. This program addresses 
the ``Healthy People 2010'' focus area Public Health Infrastructure.
    The purpose of this program is to establish two or more centers for 
public health preparedness in public health law (``centers'') to 
improve the contribution that law makes to the health of the public and 
to the performance of the public health system. The highest priority 
will be on the contribution law makes to preventing, preparing for, and 
responding to terrorism, outbreaks of infectious disease, and other 
major public health threats and emergencies.
    Measurable outcomes of the program will be in alignment with the 
following performance goal for the CDC Public Health Practice Program 
Office (PHPPO): Prepare state and local health systems, departments and 
laboratories to respond to current and emerging public health threats.

C. Eligible Applicants

    Applications may be submitted by public and private nonprofit 
organizations and by governments and their agencies; that is, 
universities, colleges, technical schools, research institutions, 
public health and healthcare organizations, community-based 
organizations, faith-based organizations, and other public and private 
nonprofit organizations, state and local governments or their bona fide 
agents, including the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto 
Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 
Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the 
Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, federally 
recognized Indian tribal governments, Indian tribes, or Indian tribal 
organizations. CDC specifically encourages applications from consortia 
that include accredited schools of public health or medicine, 
accredited schools of law, and organizations that serve the legal and/
or law enforcement communities.

    Note: Title 2 of the United States Code section 1611 states that 
an organization described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal

[[Page 17650]]

Revenue Code that engages in lobbying activities is not eligible to 
receive Federal funds constituting an award, grant or loan.


D. Funding

Availability of Funds

    Approximately $500,000 is available in FY 2003 to fund 
approximately two or more awards. It is expected that the average award 
will be approximately $165,000 ranging from $100,000 to $250,000. It is 
expected that the awards will begin on or about September 1, 2003, and 
will be made for a 12-month budget period within a project period of up 
to three years. Funding estimates may change.
    Continuation awards within an approved project period will be made 
on the basis of satisfactory progress as evidenced by required reports 
and the availability of funds.

Recipient Financial Participation

    Matching funds are not required for this program.

E. Program Requirements

    Specific goals of the centers will be to:
    1. Provide law-related information to public health practitioners, 
policy makers, and the legal community in at least two ways: (a) by 
conducting analyses of public health legal issues; and, separately, (b) 
by improving the quality, accessibility, and utility of information 
relevant to public health practitioners and maintained in standardized, 
electronic databases.
    2. Improve the competencies of public health practitioners, public 
policy makers, the legal community, and others to apply law as an 
effective tool for public health.
    3. Foster partnerships between the public health practice community 
and the legal community (including health attorneys, law enforcement 
agencies, the judiciary, legal education and training institutions; 
legal professional associations; and related organizations) to improve 
their contribution to applying law as an effective tool for public 
health.
    CDC anticipates making awards to two or more centers. The centers 
will not necessarily conduct the same type of activities. An eligible 
applicant may apply to conduct activities that address goal 1, goal 2, 
goal 3, or any combination thereof. However, an applicant that proposes 
to conduct activities in more than one goal area must submit a separate 
application for each goal area. For example, if an applicant chooses to 
apply to conduct activities in both goal area 1 and goal area 2, the 
applicant must submit one application for each goal area. Each such 
application will be evaluated separately. CDC reserves the right to 
make an award to an applicant for activity in one goal area, but not in 
another.
    In conducting activities to achieve the purpose of this program, 
the recipient will be responsible for the activities listed in 1. 
Recipient Activities, and CDC will be responsible for the activities 
listed in 2. CDC Activities.

1. Recipient Activities

    With respect to goal 1, recipient activities will be to:
    a. Conduct analyses of public health legal issues (see guidance in 
the Content section of this announcement).
    b. Implement the information improvement plan submitted in your 
application to improve the quality, accessibility, and utility for 
public health practitioners of information relevant to public health 
and maintained in standardized, electronic, databases (see guidance in 
the Content section of this announcement); and revise that plan as 
needed thereafter.
    c. Assist other organizations to conduct activities like those 
identified in (a) and (b) above.
    d. Evaluate the impact of the activities annually.
    With respect to goal 2, recipient activities will be to:
    a. Review existing statements of core competencies in public health 
law for public health practitioners, public policy makers, the legal 
community, and others whose actions affect the health of the public, 
and assess the need for revision of those statements.
    b. Assess the extent to which the groups listed above possess those 
core competencies.
    c. Develop a plan (no later than December 31, 2003) for a self-
sustaining program of training, education, and continuing education 
suitable for implementation at multiple jurisdictional levels to 
improve the achievement of public health law-related competencies by 
the current and future public health workforce, the legal community, 
and others whose actions affect the health of the public; revise that 
plan as needed thereafter.
    d. Develop curricula, courses, and materials, (beginning no later 
than March 31, 2004) and disseminate training, education, and 
continuing education consistent with that plan.
    e. Assist other organizations in developing and disseminating such 
training, education and continuing education consistent with that plan.
    f. Evaluate the impact of the recipient's activities annually.
    With respect to goal 3, recipient activities will be to:
    a. Identify organizations in the legal community currently or 
potentially active in improving the contribution law makes to the 
health of the public; for this purpose the ``legal community'' includes 
health attorneys, law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, legal 
education and training institutions, legal professional associations, 
and related organizations.
    b. Assess the capacity of those organizations to make such 
contributions and identify gaps between their existing and needed 
capacities.
    c. Develop (by December 31, 2003) a plan to assist those 
organizations in improving their capacity; and revise that plan as 
needed thereafter.
    d. Assist those organizations to improve their capacity through 
consultation, technical assistance, training, and other activities.
    e. Evaluate the impact of the activities annually.

2. CDC Activities

    a. Provide scientific, technical, and legal assistance.
    b. In goal area 1, Provide technical assistance in identifying 
public health legal issues for analysis, in implementing the plan for 
improving information, and in developing approaches to assisting other 
organizations.
    In goal area 2, Provide technical assistance in identifying 
existing statements of competencies, in setting priorities for a plan 
for a program to improve achievement of competencies, in setting 
priorities for training materials, and in developing approaches to 
assisting other organizations.
    In goal area 3, Provide technical assistance in identifying 
organizations in the legal community suitable for partnerships, in 
developing methods for assessing their capacity, in setting priorities 
for assisting them, and in developing approaches to improving their 
capacity.
    c. Collaborate in identifying constituencies to be served and in 
establishing goals, priorities, strategies, timelines, and training 
materials.
    d. Identify and establish partnerships between the grantees and 
other organizations.
    e. Collaborate in the evaluation of the effectiveness of the 
collaborative activities supported under this cooperative agreement.

F. Content

Letter of Intent (LOI)

    A LOI is required for this program. The Program Announcement title 
and

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number must appear in the LOI. The narrative should be no more than two 
pages, double-spaced, printed on one side, with one-inch margins, and 
unreduced 12-point font. Your letter of intent will be used to estimate 
the potential reviewer workload and to avoid conflicts of interest 
during the review. Your letter of intent must include the following 
information: name, address, telephone number, and E-mail address of the 
Principal Investigator, the identities of other key personnel and 
participating institutions, and a narrative description of the proposed 
project.

Applications

    The Program Announcement title and number must appear in the 
application. Use the information in the Program Requirements, Other 
Requirements, and Evaluation Criteria sections to develop the 
application content. Your PHS 398 (OMB Number 0925-0001) application 
will be evaluated on the criteria listed, so it is important to follow 
them in laying out your program plan. The narrative should be no more 
than 25 pages, single-spaced, printed on one side, with one-inch 
margins, and 12-point unreduced font.
    The narrative should consist of, at a minimum, the following 
sections: Background and Need; Goals and Objectives; Project Management 
and Staffing; Methods and Plan of Operation; Collaboration Plan; 
Evaluation Plan; and Requested Budget.
    In addition, the narrative contained in applications for activities 
that address goal 1 must include the following information:
    a. A description of the public health legal issues the applicant 
tentatively proposes to analyze, reasons for selecting those issues, 
and a description of ways public health practitioners, policy makers, 
and the legal community would apply the results of those analyses.
    b. A detailed plan for activities the recipient would conduct to 
improve the quality, accessibility, and utility for public health 
practitioners of information relevant to public health and maintained 
in standardized, electronic databases. (This is the ``information 
improvement plan'' referred to in the Program Requirements section of 
this announcement.) This type of information consists, in part, of 
information stemming from scholarly legal research and analysis and 
review, as well as information maintained in compilations of statutory 
and regulatory law and of judicial rulings. This body of information 
currently is largely inaccessible to public health practitioners. The 
information improvement plan will identify the types and sources of 
such information the recipient will include in these activities, the 
methods the recipient will use to improve the quality, accessibility, 
and utility of that information, the resources the recipient will use 
to conduct these activities, and a calendar showing when improved 
information would be made available to public health practitioners.

G. Submission and Deadline

Letter of Intent (LOI) Submission

    On or before May 12, 2003, submit the LOI to the Grants Management 
Specialist identified in the ``Where to Obtain Additional Information'' 
section of this announcement.

Application Forms

    Submit the original and two copies of PHS 398 (OMB Number 0925-
0001) (Errata Instruction Sheet for PHS 398 attached). Forms are 
available at the following Internet address: http://www.cdc.gov/od/pgo/forminfo.htm.
    If you do not have access to the Internet, or if you have 
difficulty accessing the forms on-line, you may contact the CDC 
Procurement and Grants Office Technical Information Management Section 
(PGO-TIM) at: 770-488-2700. Applications can be mailed to you.

Submission Date, Time, and Address

    The application must be received by 4 p.m. Eastern Time June 9, 
2003.
    Submit the application to:

Technical Information Management-PA03048, Procurement and 
Grants Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2920 
Brandywine Rd., Atlanta, GA 30341-4146.

    Applications may not be submitted electronically.

CDC Acknowledgement of Application Receipt

    A postcard will be mailed by PGO-TIM, notifying you that CDC has 
received your application.

Deadline

    Letters of intent and applications shall be considered as meeting 
the deadline if they are received before 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the 
deadline date. Any applicant who sends their application by the United 
States Postal Service or commercial delivery services must ensure that 
the carrier will be able to guarantee delivery of the application by 
the closing date and time. If an application is received after closing 
due to: (1) Carrier error, when the carrier accepted the package with a 
guarantee for delivery by the closing date and time, or (2) significant 
weather delays or natural disasters, CDC will upon receipt of proper 
documentation, consider the application as having been received by the 
deadline.
    Any application that does not meet the above criteria will not be 
eligible for competition, and will be discarded. The applicant will be 
notified of their failure to meet the submission requirements.

H. Evaluation Criteria

Letter of Intent

    The required Letter of Intent will not be evaluated or scored.

Application

    Applicants are required to provide measures of effectiveness that 
will demonstrate the accomplishment of the various identified 
objectives of the cooperative agreement. Measures of effectiveness must 
relate to the goals stated in the Program Requirements section of this 
announcement. Measures must be objective and quantitative and must 
measure the intended outcome. These measures of effectiveness shall be 
submitted with the application and shall be an element of evaluation.
    A review group appointed by CDC will evaluate each application 
against the following criteria:
1. Collaboration Plan (25 points)
    a. The extent to which the applicant presents documented evidence 
of past or current experience and collaboration, or capacity to 
collaborate, with partners active in public health practice and public 
health law, the legal community, and other relevant entities.
    b. The extent to which the applicant proposes relevant and feasible 
collaborations with other organizations in conducting the Recipient 
Activities and methods for fostering collaboration among such 
organizations.
    c. The extent to which the application includes signed agreements 
specifying the roles and responsibilities of each organization that 
will collaborate with the applicant.
2. Project Management and Staffing (20 points)
    a. The extent to which the project staff is clearly identified, 
possesses appropriate skills and knowledge, and has clearly described 
roles.
    b. The extent to which the application provides details regarding 
the level of effort and allocation of time for each staff position.
    c. The extent to which the applicant possesses management and other

[[Page 17652]]

systems to assure successful and responsible program implementation.
    d. The applicant's experience in the management of resources and 
production of successful outcomes.
3. Methods and Plan of Operation (20 points)
    a. The soundness of the methods the applicant proposes to use to 
conduct each of the Recipient Activities.
    b. The specificity, relevance, and feasibility of the plan of 
action the applicant proposes to take to develop and conduct each of 
the Recipient Activities.
4. Goals and Objectives (15 points)
    a. The extent to which the application addresses the center goals 
listed in the Program Requirements section of this announcement.
    b. The extent to which the application specifies objectives, 
activities, work projects, and timelines, which are supportive of the 
goals, measurable, and feasible.
5. Background and Need (10 points)
    The extent to which the applicant clearly describes the need for, 
and benefits of, the proposed center, including delineation of target 
audiences and benefits that they would realize from the center's 
activities.
6. Evaluation Plan (10 points)
    The extent to which the applicant provides a detailed description 
of the methods to be used to evaluate program effectiveness, including 
identification of the variables to be evaluated, identification of the 
person(s) or organization(s) that will conduct evaluations, and 
specification of the time line for evaluations.
7. Budget (Not scored)
    The extent to which the budget is clearly explained, adequately 
justified, reasonable, sufficient for the proposed project activities, 
and consistent with the intended use of the cooperative agreement 
funds.
8. Human Subjects
    Does the application adequately address the requirements of title 
45 CFR part 46 for the protection of human subjects: Not scored; 
however, an application can be disapproved if the research risks are 
sufficiently serious and protection against risks is so inadequate as 
to make the entire application unacceptable.
    Does the application adequately address the CDC Policy requirements 
regarding the inclusion of women, ethnic, and racial groups in the 
proposed research. This includes:
    1. The proposed plan for the inclusion of both sexes and racial and 
ethnic minority populations for appropriate representation.
    2. The proposed justification when representation is limited or 
absent.
    3. A statement as to whether the design of the study is adequate to 
measure differences when warranted.
    4. A statement as to whether the plans for recruitment and outreach 
for study participants include the process of establishing partnerships 
with community(ies) and recognition of mutual benefits.

I. Other Requirements

Technical Reporting Requirements

    Provide CDC with original plus two copies of:
    1. Interim progress report, no less than 90 days before the end of 
the budget period. The progress report will serve as your non-competing 
continuation application, and must contain the following elements:
    a. Current budget period activities and objectives.
    b. Current budget period financial progress.
    c. New budget period program proposed activities and objectives.
    d. Detailed line-item budget and justification.
    e. Additional requested information.
    2. Financial status report, no more than 90 days after the end of 
the budget period.
    3. Final financial and performance reports, no more than 90 days 
after the end of the project period.
    Send all reports to the Grants Management Specialist identified in 
the ``Where to Obtain Additional Information'' section of this 
announcement.

Additional Requirements

    The following additional requirements are applicable to this 
program. For a complete description of each, see Attachment I of this 
announcement as posted on the CDC Web site.

AR-1 Human Subjects Requirements
AR-2 Requirements for Inclusion of Women and Racial and Ethnic 
Minorities in Research
AR-7 Executive Order 12372 Review
AR-8 Public Health System Reporting Requirements
AR-9 Paperwork Reduction Act Requirements
AR-10 Smoke-free Workplace Requirements
AR-11 Healthy People 2010
AR-12 Lobbying Restrictions
AR-13 Prohibition on Use of CDC Funds for Certain Gun Control 
Activities
AR-15 Proof of Non-Profit Status

J. Where to Obtain Additional Information

    This and other CDC announcements, the necessary applications, and 
associated forms can be found on the CDC Web site, Internet address: 
http://www.cdc.gov. Click on ``Funding'' then ``Grants and Cooperative 
Agreements''.
    For general questions about this announcement, contact:

Technical Information Management, CDC Procurement and Grants Office, 
2920 Brandywine Road, Atlanta, GA 30341-4146, Telephone: 770-488-2700.
    For Business management and budget assistance, contact:

Merlin J. Williams, Grants Management Specialist, Procurement and 
Grants Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2920 
Brandywine Road, Atlanta, GA 30341-4146, Telephone number 770-488-2765, 
E-mail address [email protected].
    For program technical assistance, contact:

Anthony D. Moulton, Ph.D., Public Health Law Program, Public Health 
Program Practice Office, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 
4770 Buford Hwy. (K-39), Atlanta, Georgia 30341-3724, Phone 770-488-
2405/Fax 770-488-2553, E-mail: [email protected].

    Dated: April 4, 2003.
Sandra R. Manning,
Director, Procurement and Grants Office, Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention.
[FR Doc. 03-8746 Filed 4-9-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4163-18-P