Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence Program Cooperative Agreement

The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, Center for Response, Office of Strategic Partnerships, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is offering the Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence Program Cooperative Agreement, opportunity EP-U3R-26-001. The program is authorized under Section 1204 of the Public Health Service Act and is intended to strengthen regional pediatric disaster readiness through coordinated expertise, training, planning, and health care systems. Children have specialized clinical, developmental, behavioral, psychosocial, equipment, pharmaceutical, transportation, and workforce needs during disasters. ASPR intends to establish and sustain a national network of four Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence that will function as regional hubs for pediatric disaster preparedness, response, recovery, resilience, education, training, coordination, situational awareness, and specialized surge capability. The program will fund recipients to develop coordinated pediatric disaster care capability, strengthen pediatric disaster preparedness plans and health care system coordination, enhance statewide and regional pediatric medical surge capacity, increase health care professional competency through standardized training, and improve situational awareness and regional pediatric readiness. Required work addresses pediatric trauma, burn care, emerging infectious diseases, pandemic influenza, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents, behavioral and mental health effects of disasters, and children with special health care needs. Activities include identifying regional risks and capability gaps, building partnerships, improving disaster plans, examining legal and policy barriers, developing deployable pediatric response capabilities, strengthening telemedicine and telementoring, improving pediatric patient tracking, transportation and family reunification, creating training programs and an open access resource repository, developing readiness metrics and a self assessment tool, and conducting at least one regional readiness exercise during the project period. Recipients must collaborate directly with the other funded centers on specified education, training, situational awareness, readiness metrics, and self assessment activities. ASPR expects four cooperative agreement awards and total program funding of 24000000 over the five year period of performance. Each recipient is expected to receive approximately 6000000 over five years, with expected funding of 1200000 per recipient for each 12 month budget period, subject to available funds and program priorities. There is no cost sharing or matching requirement. Funds may be used for reasonable program purposes such as personnel, consultants, equipment, supplies, grant related travel, contractual services, and other allowable grant related costs. Funds may not be used for research or clinical care. Other restrictions include limitations concerning furniture, lobbying, fundraising, vehicles, construction and major alteration and renovation, and other prohibited expenditures identified in the notice. The salary rate limitation identified as of January 2026 is 228000 per year. Only minor alteration and renovation activities meeting the notice requirements are permitted. Eligible applicants are limited to one or more public or private hospitals and or corporate health systems. The notice defines a corporate health system as an organized, coordinated, collaborative network linking health care providers through common ownership or contract across economic, noneconomic, and clinical domains to provide a coordinated vertical continuum of services and maintain clinical and fiscal accountability for outcomes and health status. Applicants must submit required letters of support from specified state and regional partners, including health or hospital association representation, emergency management, emergency medical services, and a children's hospital in an additional state within the defined region. Additional letters from specified acute care hospitals, emergency management offices, and emergency medical services offices are not mandatory but can earn funding priority points. Key personnel must include a Medical Director meeting the stated licensing, board certification, pediatric clinical experience, emergency systems familiarity, and disaster preparedness qualifications. Applications must be submitted through Grants.gov by August 31, 2026, at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. Applicants must maintain active SAM.gov registration, including a Unique Entity Identifier, and an active Grants.gov account. The application includes a one page project abstract, a project narrative limited to 20 pages, a budget narrative with no stated page limit, required attachments, and federal standard forms. The project narrative should address the overview, work plan and timeline, organizational capability, evaluation and performance measurement plan, personnel, and letters of support. Attachments include a table of contents, detailed Budget Period 1 work plan, organizational chart, curricula vitae, statement of assurance, letters of support, and an indirect cost agreement when applicable. Required standard forms include SF-424, SF-424A, SF-424B, and SF-LLL. The project abstract, project narrative, and budget narrative must be submitted as PDF files using Times New Roman, 12 point font, single spacing, one inch margins, page numbers, and 10 point font for footnotes and text in graphics. Applications first undergo an initial review for eligibility, timeliness, Grants.gov submission, completeness, and compliance with formatting and page limitations. Eligible applications proceed to merit review. The 100 point scoring structure assigns 5 points to Approach, 36 points to Organizational Capability, 52 points to the Work Plan, 2 points to Budget, and 5 points to Project Relevance and Evaluation. Up to 5 additional funding priority points may be available based on specified additional letters of support, participation in the National Disaster Medical System Definitive Care Network, and an established state Pediatric Medical Recognition Program. Geographic distribution is also a special consideration, and no more than one recipient will be funded in each HHS Region. Final decisions consider review panel recommendations, programmatic and grants management compliance, cost reasonableness, available funding, anticipated results, and the likelihood of achieving expected benefits. The expected award date is September 30, 2026, with an expected project start date of October 1, 2026. The period of performance is five years divided into 12 month budget periods. Recipients must participate in government kick off and quarterly meetings, biweekly teleconferences as directed, quarterly recipient meetings, and required reporting, including quarterly progress reports, end of year reporting, and annual After Action Reports and Corrective Action Plans resulting from exercises. Program questions may be directed to Joe Lamana, Director, Office of Strategic Partnerships, at Joe.Lamana@hhs.gov or 202-230-9169. Grants management questions may be directed to Percy Jernigan at ibj7@cdc.gov or 770-488-2811. Grants.gov technical support is available at support@grants.gov or 1-800-518-4726. The notice does not state that this opportunity recurs annually or on another regular cycle.

Structure the work plan around every required Activity A through E because the Work Plan carries 52 of 100 base points. Demonstrate organizational capability and relevant prior experience because this section carries 36 points. Submit every required letter of support and consider additional desired letters that can contribute funding priority points. Clearly document the Medical Director's required qualifications and the roles of personnel, consultants, and partners. Align the project narrative, work plan, budget, timelines, outputs, and evaluation measures. Follow all page limits and formatting requirements because noncompliant applications may be excluded during initial review.