I-FASD: Understanding Clinical Data and Pathways to Inform Surveillance of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders | CDC RFA DD22 2202

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA DD22 2202

The I-FASD: Understanding Clinical Data and Pathways to Inform Surveillance of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number CDC RFA DD22 2202) is a CDC-led cooperative agreement designed to strengthen how public health can track and understand fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) in children using real-world healthcare information. FASDs refer to a set of overlapping conditions linked to prenatal alcohol exposure, and the CDC is emphasizing that better surveillance is necessary to estimate how common these conditions are, understand the kinds of services and supports affected children need, and document patterns such as healthcare use and co-occurring conditions. Rather than funding new clinical research, this announcement is focused on non-research public health surveillance work, meaning the goal is to improve systems, methods, and practical understanding of how existing data can be used to monitor FASDs.

A core idea behind this funding is that many potentially useful surveillance signals already exist inside routine healthcare data systems, such as electronic medical records (EMRs/EHRs) and insurance claims databases. The problem the CDC is trying to solve is that these sources can be difficult to interpret for surveillance without first understanding what information is actually captured, how consistent and complete it is, and how children with suspected FASDs move through the healthcare system before they are evaluated or diagnosed. In practice, there are often multiple steps and decision points (screening, referral, multidisciplinary evaluation, diagnostic coding, follow-up care), and those steps can vary by clinic, specialty, state, and payer. This opportunity is meant to work directly with clinical sites that already have hands-on experience evaluating, diagnosing, and/or caring for children with FASDs, because those sites are best positioned to clarify what is documented, where it is documented, and how those documentation patterns relate to real clinical pathways.

The funded work is organized around three main activities. First, awardees are expected to identify, describe, and abstract information from data sources that contain healthcare-related details for children who are referred for FASD evaluation, are evaluated, or receive an FASD diagnosis. This can include locating relevant fields and documentation within EHRs, pulling structured elements (for example, diagnosis codes, visit types, referrals) as well as understanding where key information may live in unstructured clinical notes, and describing how these data are captured over time. Second, awardees must characterize the availability and quality of the healthcare data itself, including how complete, accurate, standardized, and accessible the data are, and where gaps or inconsistencies limit its use for public health surveillance. This part also includes identifying concrete opportunities to use healthcare data for surveillance, such as defining feasible case-finding approaches or determining which indicators are most reliable across sites. Third, awardees are expected to describe and assess the real-world processes and pathways by which children with possible FASDs are identified, referred, evaluated, and diagnosed. That means mapping how a concern is first raised (for example, by a pediatrician, school, caregiver, or specialist), how referrals are made and to whom, what evaluations occur, and what barriers or bottlenecks might prevent timely diagnosis or consistent documentation.

Administratively, this opportunity is offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, specifically within CDCs National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD). The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial involvement from the CDC in technical direction, coordination, or collaboration, rather than a hands-off grant structure. The opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding under the health activity category, with CFDA number 93.073. The posted award ceiling is $450,000, and the CDC anticipated making three awards under this announcement.

Eligibility is broad and includes many public and private entity types: state, county, city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; other tribal organizations; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those specific nonprofit categories); for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other for-profits); and other entities as allowed under the additional eligibility language. The opportunity was created on March 2, 2022, with an original application closing date of May 2, 2022, and electronic submissions were due by 11:59 pm ET on the due date.

Overall, the purpose of I-FASD is to produce practical, on-the-ground findings about what FASD-related clinical data exist, how usable those data are, and how children with possible FASDs travel through identification, referral, evaluation, and diagnosis workflows. The CDC states that the results will be used to inform future surveillance activities, meaning the expected output is a stronger foundation for building or improving FASD surveillance approaches that rely on healthcare data systems and real clinical processes, rather than relying solely on smaller studies or isolated reporting methods.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - NCBDDD in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "I-FASD: Understanding Clinical Data and Pathways to Inform Surveillance of Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.073.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 02, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 02, 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.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $450,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 3 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification), Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for CDC RFA DD22 2202

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: