Cooperative Agreements

ASPR’s Office of Health Care Readiness administers programs and activities that strengthen health care delivery system preparedness to provide coordinated, life-saving care in the face of disasters and other emergencies. To accomplish this mission, the Office of Health Care Readiness works with health care partners from all U.S. states, territories, and freely associated states, and from across the health care industry. The Office of Health Care Readiness awards funding to recipients who conduct activities that support health care readiness at the local, regional, and national levels through programs like the Hospital Preparedness Program, the National Special Pathogen System, the Regional Disaster Health Response System, Trauma Care Readiness and Coordination Program, and the Workforce Capacity and Capability.

Hospital Preparedness Program

The Hospital Preparedness Program is the primary source of federal funding for health care delivery system preparedness and response. This cooperative agreement awards funding to states, territories, freely associated states, and eligible major metropolitan areas. Hospital Preparedness Program recipients provide funding to, and work with, health care coalitions to conduct health care readiness activities. ASPR distributes annual Hospital Preparedness Program funding to recipients based on a statutorily required funding formula.

Hospital Preparedness Program Cooperative Agreement Guidance and Funding Tables 

National Special Pathogen System

The National Special Pathogen System is a national, tiered System of Care – similar to the National Trauma Care System – with four facility levels that have increasing capabilities to care for patients that have suspected or confirmed high consequence infectious diseases. The National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center is the coordinating body for the National Special Pathogen System; Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers are Level 1 facilities, and Special Pathogen Treatment Centers are Level 2 facilities within the system. Originally established as the Regional Ebola Treatment Network, today the National Special Pathogen System strengthens health care readiness for high consequence infectious diseases more broadly.

Regional Disaster Health Response System

The Regional Disaster Health Response System builds upon and unifies existing specialty care assets, coordinates resource allocation, and facilitates patient load-balancing within and across multi-state regions that support a comprehensive health care delivery system that is more capable of responding to health security threats. The Regional Disaster Response System has four sites: Region 1, Region 4, Region 7, and Region 8. 

Cooperative Agreements

• Fiscal Year 2021 Partnership for Disaster Health Response Notice of Funding Opportunity: EP-HIT-21-003: Partnership for Disaster Health Response

• Fiscal Year 2020 Partnership for Disaster Health Response Notice of Funding Opportunity: EP-HIT-20-002: Partnership for Disaster Health Response

• Fiscal Year 2018 Partnership for Disaster Health Response Funding Opportunity Announcement: EP-HIT-18-001: Partnership for Disaster Health Response

Trauma Care Readiness and Coordination Program 

The Trauma Care Readiness and Coordination Program provides funding to states, tribal organizations, and trauma centers to strengthen coordination between hospitals, emergency medical services, and public health agencies. This program will test scalable models that improve trauma system readiness and patient access to the right level of care, all while improving the nation’s response readiness for both everyday emergencies and large-scale disasters. Information gained through these pilots will support ASPR in identifying models that are effective and feasible for broader implementation.

Cooperative Agreement

• Fiscal Year 2026 – 2028 Notice of Funding Opportunity: EP-U3R-26-002: Trauma Care Readiness and Coordination Program Notice of Funding Opportunity

* When funding was originally released to NETEC as part of the Regional Ebola Treatment Network, NETEC was called the National Ebola Training and Education Center.