Egg Safety Regulatory Program Standards Development (U18) | RFA FD 16 040

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA FD 16 040

The Egg Safety Regulatory Program Standards Development (U18) opportunity (RFA-FD-16-040) is a discretionary cooperative agreement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designed to strengthen and better align egg safety oversight across the United States. It is structured as a limited-competition award, meaning it is not broadly open to all types of applicants; it targets a specific audience and is intended to support coordinated federal-state work rather than stand-alone research. The overall focus is improving national egg safety programs by helping states evaluate their current regulatory systems, close gaps with federal requirements, and create more consistent practices and information-sharing nationwide.

The core work funded under this cooperative agreement centers on three connected tasks. First, participating state egg safety regulatory programs are expected to conduct a self-assessment of their egg regulatory program. A major component of that self-assessment is a careful comparison of state egg laws and regulations against current federal egg safety laws and regulations. In practical terms, this means identifying where state rules match federal requirements, where they differ, and where there may be missing authorities, outdated provisions, or implementation challenges that affect inspection, enforcement, or prevention of egg-related hazards.

Second, the award supports development and implementation of an agreement and protocol for sharing egg regulatory inspections and related information between states and the FDA. This is aimed at improving coordination and reducing fragmentation in oversight, especially in situations where eggs, producers, packers, or distribution networks cross state lines. By standardizing how inspection results, compliance findings, and other regulatory information are exchanged, the program seeks to improve situational awareness and enable more timely and consistent responses to emerging risks or recurring compliance problems.

Third, the program calls for identifying gaps and areas for improvement between federal and state egg programs and then providing recommendations that can serve as the basis for national egg regulatory program standards for states. The intent is not only to find deficiencies, but to translate what is learned into practical, scalable standards or guidance that can help states build more uniform, modern egg safety regulatory programs. These recommendations would ideally address program elements such as legal authorities, inspection approaches, training needs, reporting and data systems, and consistency in how requirements are interpreted and applied.

Eligibility is limited to state governments, specifically state government agencies that operate egg safety regulatory programs. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates substantial involvement by the FDA in the funded activities, such as collaboration on plans, review of deliverables, and joint development of protocols or standards. The Funding Activity Category is listed as Food and Nutrition and Health, and the CFDA number associated with the opportunity is 93.103.

Key administrative details include an original closing date of July 1, 2016, a creation date of April 14, 2016, an expected number of awards of five, and an award ceiling of $150,000. Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a targeted FDA-state partnership effort to benchmark state egg safety systems against federal expectations, build reliable inspection and information-sharing mechanisms, and use those findings to shape consistent national program standards that improve egg safety outcomes across jurisdictions.

• The Food and Drug Administration in the food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Egg Safety Regulatory Program Standards Development (U18)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.103.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2016-04-14.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-07-01. (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 $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for RFA FD 16 040

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