The Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), with funding support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Environmental Health Science and Practice (EHSP) division, is pleased to offer funds to one or more public health, environmental, agricultural, or other public health-associated laboratories (PHL) that represent a city, county, region within a state, state, or multi-state region. The awardee will plan and host one or more meetings of the environmental health system in the specified location identified by the PHL. The meeting(s) will focus on:

  • GOAL 1: Strengthening/building relationships between environmental health laboratory scientist, epidemiologists, toxicologists, emergency response personnel et al.;
  • GOAL 2: Improving the environmental health system by facilitating communication between both the environmental health professional disciplines and the jurisdictions involved in an environmental health issue;
  • GOAL 3: Addressing, or advancing an issue within the specified area to provide context for strengthening the environmental health system.

The meeting(s) should help entities within the environmental health system to better meet community environmental health needs, focused on topics such as, but not limited to, contaminants of emerging concern, private well water, and emergency response. APHL will provide $7,500 of funding per selected applicant to conduct one or more meetings. This funding will be paid to a selected applicant in the form of a sub-award.

Scope of Work

Each selected applicant will have to conclude the meeting (or complete the series of meetings) by close of business on Friday, June 19, 2020. APHL anticipates that selected applicant(s) will focus the meeting on advancing/addressing an environmental health issue by building upon existing partnerships, or forging new avenues of communication with members of the environmental health system members in the applicant's jurisdiction. This may include legislators, community groups, non-laboratory scientists and more. APHL will expect each selected applicant to complete the following items in connection with the development and hosting of the environmental health systems meeting:

  • Clearly state the environmental health issue you are working to address and why this meeting process is a good mechanism to advance or address this issue.
  • Work with a professional facilitator throughout the meeting planning and execution process.
  • Develop a timeline for planning and executing the meeting, with dates for key activities such as:
    • Developing and meeting with the planning committee
    •  Working with the professional facilitator
    •  Creating draft and final agendas
    •  Determining logistics
    •  Sending invitations
    •  Pre-meeting preparation activities
    •  Setting the meeting date
    • Post meeting follow-up activities
    •  Other activities as appropriate
  • Create and convene a multi-disciplinary planning committee that includes representation of necessary viewpoints to properly advance/address the identified environmental health issue, such as state and local environmental departments, health agencies, regional Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry & EPA offices or federal agencies, community advocacy groups and others. The Committee will:
    • develop themes, goals and objectives for the meeting
    • provide a draft agenda with an approximation of meeting length (recommended meeting length: one day to maximize participation)
    • create an invitee list that is representative of the perspectives (i.e disciplines, organizations) needed to achieve the goal and objectives of the meeting
    •  follow and agreed- upon timeline of activities
  • Provide an overview of logistical considerations for the meeting, such as the meeting location, any hotel accommodations and a point of contact for these logistical items.
  • Provide a proposed, itemized budget with line item justification.
  • Execute the proposed meeting.
  • Evaluate and report on the meeting (see Evaluation Section in the RFP Documet)
  • Consider submitting an oral or poster session of the meeting outcomes for the 2021 APHL Annual Conference

​Proposal Deadline

Complete proposals must be submitted through email to Sarah Wright (sarah.wright@aphl.org), Environmental Laboratories Manager, by close of business Tuesday, January 21, 2020. APHL and CDC will review the proposals, and will send notifications to awardees no later than Thursday, January 30, 2020.  APHL encourages applicants to check Appendix A to ensure that the applicant does not have points deducted from their evaluation score as a result of not providing complete information in one or more of the scoring areas.

Note to applicants: APHL is not responsible for lost or misdirected submissions. APHL will send an email to submitting applicants to confirm receipt of submission. If an applicant does not receive this confirmation within three days of submission, the applicant should contact Sarah Wright at 240.485.2730 to verify receipt of your proposal.

Project Deadline

APHL will expect that each selected applicant will complete each applicable milestone by the due date specified in the agreement APHL (see Conditions of Award Acceptance). Each selected applicant will be required to submit a final report no later than close of business on Friday, June 26, 2020, as APHL will not grant an extension to this deadline.

Materials

The Development of a State or Regional Environmental Health System Meeting RFP provides detailed information in regards to this request, please read it in its entirety.