[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 122 (Wednesday, June 25, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36073-36074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-14766]



[[Page 36073]]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Food and Drug Administration

[Docket No. FDA-2014-N-0010]


Cooperative Agreement to Support the World Trade Organization's 
Standards and Trade Development Facility

AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing its 
intention to receive and consider a single source application for the 
award of a cooperative agreement in fiscal year 2014 (FY14) to the 
World Trade Organization's (WTO) Standards and Trade Development 
Facility (STDF).

DATES: Important dates are as follows:

1. The application due date is July 23, 2014.
2. The anticipated start date is September 2014.
3. The opening date is June 23, 2014.
4. The expiration date is July 24, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Submit electronic applications to: http://www.grants.gov. 
For more information, see section III of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION 
section of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Scientific/Programmatic Contact: Julie 
Moss, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug 
Administration, 5100 Paint Branch Pkwy. (HFS-550), College Park, MD 
20740, 240-402-2031, email: [email protected].
    Grants Management Contact: Kimberly Pendleton Chew, Office of 
Acquisitions and Grant Services, Food and Drug Administration, 5630 
Fishers Lane, rm. 2031, Rockville, MD 20857, 240-402-7610, email: 
[email protected].
    For more information on this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) 
and to obtain detailed requirements, please refer to the full FOA 
located at http://www.fda.gov/food/newsevents/default.htm.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Funding Opportunity Description

RFA-FD-14-087
93.103

A. Background

    The STDF is a unique global partnership established by the Food and 
Agriculture Organization, World Organization for Animal Health, World 
Bank, World Health Organization (WHO) and the WTO. The STDF supports 
developing countries in building their capacity to implement 
international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, guidelines, 
and recommendations as a means to improve their human, animal, and 
plant health status and ability to gain or maintain access to markets. 
In achieving its aims, the STDF acts as both a coordinating and a 
financing mechanism.
    The STDF is a widely established knowledge platform for information 
exchange, sharing experiences, and the identification and dissemination 
of good practice on SPS-related technical cooperation. Since 2004, over 
60 projects and 52 project preparation grants have assisted developing 
countries to overcome SPS constraints, and gain and maintain market 
access. Over 50 percent have benefited least developed and other low-
income countries.
    The STDF utilizes a key decision support tool, Multi-Criteria 
Decision Analysis (MCDA), to help establish SPS priorities and ensure 
resources are used as efficiently as possible. The use of the MCDA tool 
is unique within the STDF and is a highly valued attribute; the MCDA 
tool facilitates an open and transparent discussion among public and 
private stakeholders about capacity building needs and resources. The 
STDF is committed to the Paris Principles on Aid Effectiveness and to 
achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
    With an increasingly diverse and complex global food supply, FDA's 
interest is to strengthen food safety systems globally to prevent food 
safety problems rather than merely reacting to problems after they 
occur. FDA recognizes that it cannot do this alone. By leveraging with 
other WTO member countries and partnering with the STDF, FDA can 
broaden the reach of food safety capacity building efforts.
    This cooperative agreement will allow FDA to deepen its 
international food safety capacity building partnerships, provide a 
wider scope of impact than exists currently, and leverage resources 
with other countries.

B. Research Objectives

    The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to:
     Contribute to the knowledge base and development of food 
safety systems globally due to the increasingly diverse and complex 
food supply;
     Enhance and broaden FDA's ability to address global food 
safety and public health issues associated with food;
     Provide opportunities to leverage additional resources 
among WTO member countries;
     Support FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act (Pub. L. 111-
353) and its International Food Safety Capacity Building Plan, which 
emphasizes the concept of preventing food safety related problems 
before they occur, and the importance of establishing strong 
relationships and mutual support among all stakeholders, including 
multilateral organizations, to improve worldwide food safety.

C. Eligibility Information

    Competition is limited to the STDF hosted by the WTO. The STDF is a 
global partnership with a well-established, trusted presence and is 
uniquely qualified to further the global food safety capacity building 
objectives of this cooperative agreement. STDF's mandate is to: (1) 
Increase awareness, mobilize resources, strengthen collaboration, 
identify and disseminate good practice and (2) provide support and 
funding for the development and implementation of projects that promote 
compliance with international SPS requirements.
    An independent external evaluation of the STDF in 2008 concluded 
that the STDF ``carries out an important role that no other single body 
would be able to accomplish.'' (Source: STDF Newsletter, Vol. 2, Issue 
1, February 2009, accessible at: http://www.standardsfacility.org).
    As such, the STDF is uniquely equipped to fulfill the objectives of 
this cooperative agreement due to its diverse access to WTO members in 
both developed and developing countries, and its ability to coordinate 
capacity building programs at a national and global level. Engaging the 
STDF through this cooperative agreement will provide FDA with ample 
opportunities to leverage additional resources among WTO member 
countries. Overall, the objectives of the STDF are directly in line 
with the objectives of this cooperative agreement. This ability to 
advance the objectives of this cooperative agreement through member 
country engagement and leveraging is a requisite for success.

II. Award Information/Funds Available

A. Award Amount

    The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition intends to fund 
one award up to $200,000 total costs (direct plus indirect costs) for 
FY 2014. Future year amounts will depend on annual appropriations and 
successful performance.

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B. Length of Support

    The award will provide 1 year of support and include future 
recommended support for four additional years, contingent upon 
satisfactory performance in the achievement of project and program 
reporting objectives during the preceding year and the availability of 
Federal fiscal year appropriations.

III. Electronic Application, Registration, and Submission

    Only electronic applications will be accepted. To submit an 
electronic application in response to this FOA, applicants should first 
review the full announcement located at http://www.fda.gov/food/newsevents/default.htm. (FDA has verified the Web site addresses 
throughout this document, but FDA is not responsible for any subsequent 
changes to the Web sites after this document publishes in the Federal 
Register.) For all electronically submitted applications, the following 
steps are required.

 Step 1: Obtain a Dun and Bradstreet (DUNS) Number
 Step 2: Register With System for Award Management (SAM)
 Step 3: Obtain Username & Password
 Step 4: Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) 
Authorization
 Step 5: Track AOR Status
 Step 6: Register With Electronic Research Administration (eRA) 
Commons

    Steps 1 through 5, in detail, can be found at http://www07.grants.gov/applicants/organization_registration.jsp. Step 6, in 
detail, can be found at https://commons.era.nih.gov/commons/registration/registrationInstructions.jsp. After you have followed 
these steps, submit electronic applications to: http://www.grants.gov.

    Dated: June 19, 2014.
Leslie Kux,
Assistant Commissioner for Policy.
[FR Doc. 2014-14766 Filed 6-24-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4164-01-P