FSIS FERN Cooperative Agreement Program

Agency: Food Safety Inspection Service

10.479 -- Food Safety Cooperative Agreements

Archived opportunityLast Updated: May 13, 2026

Description

The FSIS FERN Cooperative Agreement program provides FSIS food defense capacity and supports the agency’s mission of food safety in the event of a national emergency. Any or all of the CAP initiatives may allow the selected laboratories to provide surge capacity testing for food defense events and special project testing for food defense and/or food safety topics. Laboratories will be involved in on-going testing of food matrices for food defense analytes, method development, method validation, and special directed projects that meet FSIS food safety needs. Long term planning is not always possible for these activities, so laboratories with the capability to respond quickly and with the greatest variety of capabilities will be necessary to support the needs of FSIS.

Eligibility

Eligible applicants

Government

State governments

Miscellaneous

Other

Education

Public and state institutions of higher education

Additional information

Only FERN member laboratories with active status in the FERN CCM Portal (www.fernlab.org ) are eligible for funding. This includes Higher Education Institutions (Public/State controlled), State Governments, County Governments and Federally Recognized Indian/Native American Tribal Governments. Submissions from laboratories that are either not FERN members or FERN members with an inactive status on the proposal submission due date, April 10, 2020, will not be reviewed and will not be eligible for funding.

Grantor contact information

Description

Robert W Phillips Senior Microbiologist Phone 706-546-2349

Email

USDA-FSIS-FERN

robert.phillips@usda.gov

Documents

File name	Description	Last updated
Senoir_-_Key_Person_Profile.pdf	Key Personnel FORM	Mar 10, 2020 01:01 PM UTC
FAQs.pdf	FAQs	Mar 10, 2020 07:38 PM UTC
FY21_CAP_Announcement_Brief.pdf	CAP Announcement Information Webinar Slides	Mar 10, 2020 07:42 PM UTC
FY21_CAP_Program_Announcement_03022020.pdf	Announcement Summary	Mar 2, 2020 06:38 PM UTC
SF424.pdf	Application for Federal Assistance	Mar 2, 2020 06:32 PM UTC
Project_Summaries_03022020.pdf	Project Summaries	Mar 2, 2020 06:39 PM UTC
SF424A.pdf	Budget - Non construction programs	Mar 2, 2020 06:32 PM UTC
SF424B.pdf	Assurances - Non construction programs	Mar 2, 2020 06:33 PM UTC

Link to additional information

Archived: July 13, 2020

Application process

This site is a work in progress. Go to www.grants.gov to apply, track application status, and subscribe to updates.

Award

$2,585,000

Program Funding

Expected awards

$230,000

Award Minimum

$230,000

Award Maximum

Funding opportunity number:

FSIS-FERN-030220

Cost sharing or matching requirement:

Funding instrument type:

Cooperative agreement

Opportunity Category:

Discretionary

Opportunity Category Explanation:

Category of Funding Activity:

Agriculture

Category Explanation:

History

Version:

Posted date:

March 2, 2020

Archive date:

July 13, 2020