MRC STTRONG | EP U3R 23 002

Opportunity Information: Apply for EP U3R 23 002

MRC STTRONG (Funding Opportunity Number EP U3R 23 002) is a discretionary federal grant opportunity offered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), specifically supporting the Office of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). The program is structured as a cooperative agreement, which typically means awardees should expect an active partnership with the federal program office rather than a purely hands-off grant. The overall purpose is to strengthen community preparedness and emergency response by supporting and expanding the capabilities of local Medical Reserve Corps units and the volunteer networks they manage.

The opportunity is built around the Medical Reserve Corps model: a national system of roughly 300,000 volunteers organized across about 750 community-based units. These units exist to improve local emergency response capacity, reduce community vulnerabilities, and build day-to-day preparedness and long-term resilience. A key theme in the program description is that MRC units help communities avoid being overly dependent on state or national resources during incidents by providing locally organized, locally deployable supplemental personnel when demand spikes.

A central feature of the MRC approach, reflected in this funding opportunity, is the broad range of volunteers it mobilizes. MRC units are not limited to clinicians; they include medical and public health professionals as well as community members who do not have healthcare backgrounds but can contribute essential skills in emergencies and preparedness work. The intent is to build a flexible, scalable volunteer force that can support both crisis response and steady-state public health and preparedness activities, such as training, exercises, outreach, and readiness initiatives that improve response performance before an event occurs.

The grant recognizes that MRC units are community-rooted and hosted by different kinds of organizations. Most units are sponsored by local health departments, but the opportunity also reflects the reality that units may be sponsored by emergency management agencies, local nonprofit organizations, and universities. That sponsorship diversity matters because it signals that preparedness and response capability-building can be anchored in multiple parts of a community system, not just in traditional public health agencies.

From a funding and scale standpoint, the opportunity lists an award ceiling of $2,500,000 and an expected total of 70 awards. The funding activity category is Health, and the CFDA number associated with the program is 93.008. The posting indicates it was created on March 1, 2023, with an original closing date of April 30, 2023. Eligibility is noted as "Others," with additional eligibility details referenced as being in a separate eligibility text field (not included in the excerpt provided), which implies applicants would need to confirm the precise eligible entity types and any restrictions in the full notice.

In practical terms, this opportunity is aimed at reinforcing the local infrastructure that makes volunteer response possible: organizing volunteers, ensuring they are trained and ready, integrating them into community emergency operations, and maintaining the systems that allow communities to surge staffing when emergencies occur. The underlying public benefit is improved local capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters, public health emergencies, and other incidents, with a stronger emphasis on community resilience and reduced reliance on outside resources when local systems are under stress.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "MRC STTRONG" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.008.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 01, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 30, 2023 No Explanation. (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 $2,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 70 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for EP U3R 23 002

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