ATSDR’s Partnership to Promote Local Efforts To Reduce Environmental Exposure | CDC RFA TS 23 0001

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA TS 23 0001

ATSDR's Partnership to Promote Local Efforts To Reduce Environmental Exposure (CDC RFA TS 23 0001) is a CDC/ATSDR cooperative agreement designed to help governments and tribal entities reduce harm from hazardous substances by both responding to known contamination problems and preventing new exposure risks before they occur. The opportunity sits within ATSDR's longstanding role under major federal environmental health laws, especially CERCLA (the Superfund law) and later expansions under RCRA amendments and SARA. Those authorities collectively charge ATSDR with evaluating health hazards tied to hazardous waste sites and releases, reducing or preventing exposure and resulting illness, and strengthening the broader evidence base and practical tools used in environmental public health.

A major focus of this funding is supporting site-related public health work that directly decreases or eliminates exposures. In practical terms, that means helping recipients conduct or support public health assessments and other health-focused evaluations tied to places where hazardous substances may be present, such as Superfund-related locations or other contaminated environments. The intent is to translate site findings into concrete public health actions: identifying who may be exposed, how exposure may be occurring, what health risks are plausible, and what steps (from remediation coordination to community guidance and follow-up) can reduce ongoing risk. This aligns with ATSDR's statutory responsibility to assess hazards at specific sites and to help prevent or reduce further exposure.

At the same time, the grant emphasizes prevention-oriented approaches that stop exposure pathways before they are created, particularly through proactive policies, systems, and best-practice programs. One highlighted model is Choose Safe Places for Early Care and Education (CSPECE), launched in 2017 to prevent early care and education (ECE) facilities from being located in areas where children and staff could be exposed to environmental contamination. The problem CSPECE addresses is straightforward: newly licensed child care and early learning programs can inadvertently open on or near contaminated land (for example, near legacy industrial sites, landfills, or other problematic locations) if licensing and siting decisions are made without strong environmental screening. CSPECE supports activities such as assessing the licensing landscape, building partnerships across agencies (public health, environment, licensing, and others), and embedding practical screening steps into routine processes so risky locations are flagged early. This funding opportunity explicitly builds on earlier CSPECE efforts by helping jurisdictions that do not yet have programs develop them and helping existing programs expand and strengthen their reach.

Another key theme is capacity development and applied prevention science: building the ability of agencies and communities to take environmental health science and convert it into usable tools, procedures, and decisions. Beginning in 2019, ATSDR's Office of Capacity Development and Applied Prevention Science elevated this as a priority, and this notice of funding opportunity reflects that direction by supporting innovative activities that are not necessarily tied to a single site. These non-site-specific efforts are meant to improve efficiency and extend impact across more communities, for example by developing standardized tools, improving cross-sector workflows, disseminating best practices, or creating approaches that change knowledge, behaviors, processes, and policies at scale. The underlying idea is that prevention becomes more powerful when it is built into routine decision-making rather than handled only as a response after contamination is discovered.

The opportunity is offered as a discretionary cooperative agreement, which typically means recipients can expect substantial federal involvement through technical assistance, collaboration, and shared planning rather than a hands-off grant relationship. It falls under the health funding category (CFDA 93.240) and is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's ATSDR.

Eligibility is aimed at public-sector and tribal governmental partners that can influence environmental health practice and policy locally and statewide. Eligible applicants include state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, and other Native American tribal organizations. The opportunity anticipated up to 34 awards. The posting lists an award ceiling of 0, which usually indicates the ceiling was not specified in the summary record and would need to be confirmed in the full funding announcement or budget guidance. The opportunity was created October 3, 2022, with an original application deadline of December 9, 2022 (applications due by 11:59 pm Eastern Time).

Overall, this grant is best understood as a combined response-and-prevention investment in environmental public health: it supports the traditional ATSDR work of assessing and addressing hazards where contamination is already present, while also pushing jurisdictions to adopt proactive systems like CSPECE and other scalable best practices that prevent hazardous exposures from occurring in the first place, especially for sensitive populations such as children in early care and education settings.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - ATSDR in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "ATSDR’s Partnership to Promote Local Efforts To Reduce Environmental Exposure" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.240.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 03, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 09, 2022 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm ET on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 34 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments).

Apply for CDC RFA TS 23 0001

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