Zoonotic Disease Initiative - Tribes | F22AS00308

Opportunity Information: Apply for F22AS00308

The Zoonotic Disease Initiative - Tribes (Funding Opportunity Number F22AS00308) is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (CFDA 15.069) using American Rescue Plan funds to help Tribal fish and wildlife programs strengthen their ability to detect, respond to, and manage wildlife disease events before they grow into larger outbreaks that could threaten people, wildlife, and local economies. The central idea is pandemic prevention and preparedness at the wildlife-human interface: improving early detection, rapid response capacity, and science-based management for diseases that can move between animals and humans (zoonotic diseases), while also building long-term wildlife health monitoring systems across jurisdictions.

Eligible applicants include federally recognized Tribal governments and other Native American tribal organizations. Projects are designed to run one to three years, and the award ceiling listed is $775,000. The program is built around improving the readiness and capability of Tribal wildlife agencies to address health issues in free-ranging terrestrial, avian, and aquatic wildlife. It also emphasizes coordination across boundaries, aiming to create a connected, interjurisdictional wildlife health and disease network that links Tribal, state, and territorial wildlife managers with public health partners and veterinary services so that disease information, diagnostic support, and response actions can move quickly and consistently across regions.

The opportunity is organized around a few core outcomes. One major objective is to ensure wildlife managers have a current, evidence-based wildlife disease plan that covers practical elements like surveillance approaches and sampling strategy, diagnostic needs (pathology, microbiology, virology, parasitology, toxicology) and biosafety, outbreak response steps, wildlife population management options, regulatory and policy tools, data management and data sharing, risk assessment and decision support, training, and communication plans that get timely and understandable information to key stakeholders. A second objective is building real working networks across agencies and disciplines in the same region, so collaboration is not improvised during an emergency. A third objective is improving access to diagnostic services and strengthening the capacity to manage, share, and communicate wildlife health data.

Funding can support a wide range of activities, with an emphasis on practical capacity-building. Allowable work includes developing best management practices for wildlife disease (either comprehensive BMPs or issue-specific guidance), strengthening biosecurity and biosafety protocols for field staff and facilities, and building internal and external communication systems for both routine updates and emergency events (including pre-drafted public templates). Projects can also focus on disease forecasting and horizon scanning, such as needs assessments, identifying gaps in current and future capacity, understanding climate-driven shifts in disease risk, mapping spillover hotspots, evaluating species susceptibility, and studying human health or economic implications. Planning work is explicitly supported, including disease contingency plans, carcass disposal protocols, integrating wildlife disease guidance into broader wildlife action plans, and creating sustainable long-term disease management programs.

On-the-ground preparedness and response capacity is another major eligible area. Applicants can design or enhance surveillance systems for early detection and monitoring at biologically meaningful scales, including environmental surveillance such as aquatic sampling for waterborne pathogens. Emergency response support can include building inter-jurisdictional response agreements, clarifying roles and cost coverage for response actions, establishing mutual aid arrangements, running tabletop or field exercises, creating an all-hazards incident management team with wildlife disease expertise, and conducting after-action reviews to improve future responses. Longer-term monitoring after an event to detect recurrence or lasting population impacts is also an eligible use of funds.

Capacity can be expanded through staffing and training as well. The program allows hiring dedicated wildlife health personnel, including biologists, technicians, veterinarians, ecologists, social scientists, and data specialists to strengthen detection, sampling, processing, data entry, and response. Training can be both classroom and hands-on and can target biologists, veterinarians, law enforcement, volunteers, rehabilitators, and partners, covering wildlife disease, incident management, and proper biosafety/biosecurity and PPE use, with an emphasis on consistent interjurisdictional training approaches.

The grant also recognizes that disease management is not only technical, but social and administrative. Eligible projects include human dimensions work (risk perception, tolerance for management interventions, effective messaging, education campaigns based on social science), conflict resolution with partners and stakeholders, and efforts to increase ecosystem resilience and reduce conditions that worsen disease transmission (for example, reducing risky human or domestic animal interactions with wildlife, addressing invasive species that may serve as reservoirs, and improving water and environmental quality in collaboration with other agencies). Applicants can strengthen information management systems by converting legacy data, building reporting and visualization capacity, creating formal data management plans, and setting up data-sharing strategies. Work on jurisdictions and authorities is also eligible, such as reviewing existing statutes and regulations, conducting gap analyses from detection through recovery, resolving interjurisdictional issues, and developing policies, regulations, or ordinances that enable a functional wildlife health program.

Laboratory access and diagnostic networks are a major theme. Funds can help Tribes establish or strengthen diagnostic service agreements and lab networks, expand available testing, join regional wildlife disease study groups, and improve logistics and equipment for sample collection, testing, archiving, and storage. Partnerships are encouraged broadly, including formalizing relationships through MOUs, building a community of practice that includes federal, state, territorial, and Tribal entities, and incorporating citizen scientists where appropriate for detection and reporting. Additional eligible areas include public and occupational health guidance and partnerships with public health offices, applied research that develops better detection and management tools, and climate adaptation strategies that integrate health data with environmental and climate data to understand shifting risk. Wildlife rehabilitation is also included, particularly improving biosecurity in rehab settings, strengthening diagnostic practices, and developing safer release protocols.

There are also clear limitations. Award funds cannot be used for real property acquisition or construction. Applicants are expected to focus on building the functional pieces of a wildlife health program (plans, people, partnerships, diagnostics, data, communications, and training) rather than facilities.

Proposals are selected through a merit-based review with numerical scoring. A central requirement is that proposals explain how the applicant will build an interjurisdictional, landscape-level wildlife health and disease network that protects wildlife, ecosystems, economies, and the public. The scoring criteria prioritize development or improvement of a wildlife health management plan (25 points) and strong communications capacity, including internal and external communications or hiring a communication specialist (20 points). Additional points are awarded for multi-partner proposals and formal networking arrangements, establishing diagnostic access, developing a data management plan or hiring a data manager, and addressing equity, diversity, environmental justice, and accessibility. Proposals also receive credit for climate adaptation/sustainability and for innovation or approaches that can be replicated elsewhere. Proposal narratives must be 10 pages or less, and proposals are typically reviewed by qualified federal professionals (veterinarians, biologists, ecologists, social scientists, and/or data specialists). Reviews are intended to be conducted by three reviewers per proposal when possible, with conflict-of-interest safeguards, aggregation of scores, and final approval by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director or designee. Selected proposals are expected to be posted publicly within about 120 days after the proposal due date.

Data management and reporting are treated as core responsibilities. Tribes are encouraged, but not required, to store wildlife disease data in the USGS WHISPers database, which allows control over data visibility and sharing. Regardless of whether WHISPers is used, each awardee must produce a data management plan that is submitted with the first annual report. Standard reporting includes annual financial reporting using the SF-425 and an annual 1 to 2 page performance narrative describing progress, accomplishments, and remaining work. At the end of the project, the same reporting elements are required for the full project period. Reports are due within 90 days after each reporting period ends. Separately, applicants must complete a survey at the beginning and end of the project; this survey is meant to evaluate the overall American Rescue Plan Zoonotic Disease Initiative program rather than score or judge individual proposals.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Zoonotic Disease Initiative - Tribes" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.069.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-04-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-06-27. (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 $775,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments).

Apply for F22AS00308

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