Conducting Public Health Research in China | RFA GH 17 005

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA GH 17 005

The grant opportunity titled "Conducting Public Health Research in China" (Funding Opportunity Number RFA GH 17 005) is a CDC-funded cooperative agreement intended to support a focused set of public health research and capacity-building activities carried out within China. The overall aim is to generate strong, actionable evidence on major health threats while simultaneously improving the ability of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) to plan, execute, and evaluate public health programs. Because it is structured as a cooperative agreement, the project is expected to involve active collaboration and substantial federal involvement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rather than operating as a fully independent research grant.

The program is organized around four main goals. First, it supports high-quality research on priority diseases and health problems, with an emphasis on influenza, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and HIV/AIDS, while also allowing work on other pressing public health issues, including non-communicable diseases. This signals an intent to strengthen the evidence base across both communicable and chronic disease domains, particularly where surveillance, outbreak response, or program effectiveness questions can be addressed through applied research.

Second, the opportunity places strong weight on training and workforce development. Funding is meant to help train public health professionals and selected staff in both basic and applied public health research methods, as well as the practical skills needed for program planning and evaluation. In other words, it is not just about producing research outputs; it is also about building the human capital required to sustain research, translate findings into practice, and improve program decision-making over time.

Third, the grant explicitly targets institutional capacity strengthening at China CDC. This includes improving the organization’s ability to conduct research and to plan, implement, and evaluate public health programs, with special attention to capabilities that support detection of and response to emerging and re-emerging infectious disease threats. The framing suggests investments in systems, processes, and technical competencies that make routine surveillance and emergency response more effective, with research playing a key role in informing how those systems are designed and improved.

Fourth, the FOA emphasizes translation of research into real-world impact. It calls for incorporating and promoting research findings within operational disease prevention and control programs and in policy development. This makes implementation and uptake a core expectation: studies should be designed with an eye toward practical use, and the resulting evidence should feed directly into program improvements, guidelines, or policy decisions rather than remaining purely academic.

In terms of administrative details, this is a discretionary funding opportunity under the U.S. CDC (Agency name listed as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - ERA) with CFDA number 93.326. The original closing date was May 9, 2017, and the opportunity was created on March 9, 2017. The award ceiling is listed as $5,000,000, and the CDC anticipated making about five awards, indicating an intent to fund a small number of sizable projects or project groupings rather than many small grants.

Eligibility is narrowly restricted: only the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention is eligible, explicitly including national, provincial, and local level CDC entities within China CDC. No other applicants are invited or solicited, meaning the competition is effectively limited to that institutional network. This structure aligns with the program’s capacity-building focus, since the intended recipients are the primary public health institutions responsible for surveillance, outbreak response, and prevention program delivery across China.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - ERA in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Conducting Public Health Research in China" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.326.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-03-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2017-05-09. (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 $5,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for RFA GH 17 005

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