Ethiopia Public Health Innovations Collaborative (EPIC) under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) | CDC RFA GH22 2244

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH22 2244

The Ethiopia Public Health Innovations Collaborative (EPIC) is a CDC funding opportunity (CDC RFA GH22-2244) released under PEPFAR to strengthen Ethiopia's HIV response by focusing on one of the biggest remaining constraints: the quality and availability of human resources for health (HRH) and the clinical service quality needed to reach HIV/AIDS control and elimination goals by 2030. While Ethiopia has made strong progress with PEPFAR support, the notice highlights that persistent gaps in workforce capacity and service quality continue to limit program performance. EPIC is designed as a competitive effort to close those gaps by more deeply engaging Ethiopian higher learning institutions, particularly universities with public health programs and teaching hospitals that already serve large numbers of people living with HIV.

The funding mechanism is a cooperative agreement, which typically means the recipient is expected to work closely with CDC during implementation, with substantial involvement from the agency in areas such as technical direction, coordination, and oversight. The opportunity is listed as discretionary funding in the health category (CFDA/Assistance Listing 93.067). Eligibility is described as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to many entity types, as long as applicants meet any additional criteria stated in the full announcement. CDC anticipated making about two awards.

In terms of funding, the notice states an approximate total of $5,000,000 in Fiscal Year funding for Year 1, contingent on the availability of funds. At the same time, it lists an "award ceiling" for Year 1 as $0, which can be confusing at first glance. In practice, that ceiling field sometimes appears as a placeholder in federal listings and does not necessarily mean there will be no awards; the narrative portion is the clearer indicator that CDC expected to obligate up to roughly $5 million across the Year 1 portfolio, subject to appropriations and final decisions.

Programmatically, EPIC aims to build the capacity of Ethiopian higher learning institutions by forming and managing a consortium that can support the Ministry of Health (MoH) and both federal and regional health bureaus (RHBs). The intent is not just to provide standalone trainings, but to strengthen the broader enabling environment that produces, supports, and continuously improves the HIV workforce. That includes creating stronger links between academic institutions, teaching hospitals, and government health authorities so that training and mentorship are aligned with actual service delivery needs in HIV prevention, care, and treatment settings.

A central emphasis of the opportunity is the development and expansion of mentorship systems and "centers of excellence" that can deliver timely, needs-based training for health workers. The idea is to move beyond occasional classroom-style sessions and instead establish ongoing mentorship and practical skills development structures that improve how clinicians, nurses, lab personnel, and public health staff deliver HIV services. By building this capacity through a consortium of training institutions and associated clinical sites, EPIC expects health worker competency to increase and, as a result, the quality of HIV clinical services to improve across supported regions.

EPIC also expects recipients to go beyond technical assistance and training by generating evidence to guide program improvement. Recipients are expected to conduct programmatic evaluations and surveys that can identify what is working, where quality gaps persist, and which innovations or approaches best improve clinical quality and overall system performance. This evidence-generation component is meant to feed back into policy and practice, helping the MoH and RHBs make informed decisions about workforce development strategies, training priorities, mentorship models, and quality improvement approaches that strengthen the HIV program as part of the broader health system.

Administratively, the opportunity was created on December 29, 2021, with an original application due date of February 28, 2022, and electronic submissions due by 11:59 pm ET on the closing date. The sponsoring agency is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), specifically through CDC's global health structures referenced in the listing. Overall, EPIC is positioned as a workforce and quality-focused investment that leverages Ethiopian universities and teaching hospitals as long-term engines for HRH development, with the goal of improving HIV service delivery outcomes and strengthening the health system infrastructure needed to sustain progress toward 2030 targets.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Ethiopia Public Health Innovations Collaborative (EPIC) under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.067.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 29, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 28, 2022 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm ET on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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