Renewal - Integrated Food Safety System Online Research and Collaboration Development (U18) Clinical Trials Not Allowed | RFA FD 20 023

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA FD 20 023

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through its Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), is offering a discretionary funding opportunity for a renewal cooperative agreement to continue work on the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) online collaboration and research portal. The purpose of this renewal is to support the ongoing development, maintenance, and broader adoption of modern information-sharing and research tools that live on the IFSS portal. This portal functions as a key federal-state hub designed to improve coordination, accelerate learning, and strengthen the national food safety system in ways that ultimately protect public health.

The core focus of the project is practical: build and sustain digital tools that make it easier for food safety partners to collaborate, share data and findings, and use research resources in a coordinated way. The opportunity emphasizes not just technical development, but also support and promotion, meaning the award is intended to help ensure the tools are usable, accessible to partners, and actively utilized across the food safety community. The IFSS portal is described as a critical collaboration platform, signaling that the work is meant to directly support real-world coordination between federal and state partners rather than being a purely academic or standalone research effort.

This funding is offered as a cooperative agreement (U18), which typically indicates substantial federal involvement during the project. In practice, that usually means the FDA expects to work closely with the award recipient on priorities, deliverables, and ongoing direction to ensure the portal and its tools align with national food safety needs and ORA objectives. Clinical trials are explicitly not allowed under this opportunity, reinforcing that the project is centered on infrastructure, collaboration, and applied information tools rather than clinical research.

Eligibility for this renewal competition is restricted to a single organization: the University of Minnesota. As a result, this is not an open competition among multiple universities or nonprofits, but a targeted renewal action intended to continue an existing line of work and preserve continuity for a federal-state collaboration platform that is already established.

Key administrative details include the opportunity title "Renewal - Integrated Food Safety System Online Research and Collaboration Development (U18) Clinical Trials Not Allowed" with funding opportunity number RFA FD 20 023. The awarding agency is the FDA, the activity category aligns with consumer protection, food and nutrition, and health, and the relevant CFDA listing is 93.103. The original closing date for applications was March 25, 2020, and the listed award ceiling is $1,200,000. The opportunity record was created on January 21, 2020.

• The Food and Drug Administration in the consumer protection, food and nutrition, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Renewal - Integrated Food Safety System Online Research and Collaboration Development (U18) Clinical Trials Not Allowed" 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 2020-01-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2020-03-25. (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 $1,200,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for RFA FD 20 023

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