The Council on State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) is pleased to announce the availability of training grants for implementation of the Second Edition of the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak and Response (CIFOR) Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response and the CIFOR Toolkit. The opportunity is now open to health departments serving a population size of 200,000 and greater.

The purpose of the development of the CIFOR Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response and CIFOR Toolkit is to improve public health foodborne disease outbreak detection and response. The purpose of this funding opportunity is to provide support to interested state, territorial and large urban health departments to provide a training workshop(s) using the Second Edition of the CIFOR Guidelines and CIFOR Toolkit with the aim of integrating recommendations from the Guidelines into the activities of their departments.

The Second Edition of the CIFOR Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response describes the overall approach to foodborne disease outbreaks, including preparation, detection, investigation, control and follow-up. The Guidelines also describe the roles of all key organizations in foodborne disease outbreaks. The Guidelines are targeted at local, state and federal agencies that are responsible for preventing and managing foodborne disease outbreaks.

The Second Edition of the CIFOR Toolkit was developed to aid in the implementation of the Guidelines. The Toolkit is intended to further the ability of state and local health departments to understand the contents of the Guidelines, to conduct a self-assessment of their outbreak detection and investigation procedures, and to implement appropriate recommendations from the nine chapters in the Guidelines.

To encourage and facilitate the use of the Toolkit, small sub-grants will be awarded to states, territories, and large cities/counties to bring foodborne disease outbreak investigation teams together. During the trainings, these teams will use the Toolkit to begin to determine which recommendations in the Guidelines would be helpful for that jurisdiction to improve foodborne disease outbreak investigation and response.

To view the full details of this funding opportunity, please review the attached RFP announcement. All eligible applicants are encouraged to submit an application to CSTE at [email protected] by 5 PM ET on March 31. Award recipients will be notified no later than April 15.

To learn more about CIFOR, please visit www.cifor.us. To view the webinar recordings and presentation slides from the CIFOR Guidelines and Toolkit Implementation Webinar Series, please visit the CSTE Webinar Library.

For further assistance, technical questions, or inquiries about the application, please email [email protected].