Animal Food Regulatory Program Standards Implementation Development and Maintenance, with Mutual Reliance Initiatives Clinical Trials Not Allowed | PAR 25 003

Opportunity Information: Apply for PAR 25 003

This FDA Notice of Funding Opportunity (PAR 25-003) supports state animal food safety programs in building and sustaining a nationally integrated animal food safety system. The core goal is to help state regulatory programs fully implement the Animal Food Regulatory Program Standards (AFRPS) within five years, and then keep those standards fully implemented over time. The opportunity is structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning FDA expects active involvement and collaboration rather than a hands-off grant relationship. Clinical trials are not allowed because the work is focused on regulatory system capacity, oversight, and program operations rather than human or animal clinical research.

The grant is designed to strengthen day-to-day regulatory capability in a way that improves consistency across jurisdictions and increases overall prevention of animal food safety problems. In practice, AFRPS implementation typically involves building stronger program foundations such as trained inspection staff, standardized inspection and compliance procedures, quality systems, data systems, documented program policies, and routine self-assessment and continuous improvement. The intended public health impact is better regulatory coverage of animal food facilities, stronger compliance with applicable requirements (including preventive controls expectations under 21 CFR Part 507), and ultimately fewer foodborne illness risks tied to animal food.

A major optional emphasis within the program is “mutual reliance,” which is essentially about making federal and state work more interoperable and trusted across agencies. Under the mutual reliance concept, states and FDA aim to share work, data, and enforcement actions more effectively so that each can confidently rely on the other’s inspections, findings, and regulatory decisions where appropriate. The NOFO explicitly encourages projects that strengthen partnerships, coordination, and standardized methods that integrate federal and state regulatory work. The outcomes FDA is looking for include not only AFRPS implementation and maintenance, but also operational use of standardized regulatory systems that support reciprocal reliance, reducing duplication and improving coverage and response.

Eligibility is limited to state governments operating state animal food safety programs that already have an FDA inspectional contract and are performing at a level that supports a risk-based inspection approach. Applicants must maintain an FDA inspectional contract in good standing, which includes completing agreed inspection work, audits, and related compliance/regulatory activities. The contract must include comprehensive animal food inspections under 21 CFR Part 507 that reflect the state’s inventory of firms and help meet risk-based inspection frequency goals. A specific benchmark noted in the NOFO is that the contract should result in at least 10 percent of the FDA-regulated firm inventory in the state being inspected for all applicable regulations. In addition, the applicant must have a valid FDA 20.88 agreement in place before applying.

Funding is organized into tracks based on where a state program is in the AFRPS lifecycle. Track 1, the AFRPS Development Phase, is for programs that have received fewer than five years of AFRPS cooperative agreement funding (or have never received it). Under this development track, applicants may request up to $300,000 per year. The intent is to provide enough support for programs to close gaps and reach full AFRPS implementation by year five, with the expectation that programs shift into maintenance-level support beginning in the sixth year of AFRPS cooperative agreement funding. The NOFO also allows some flexibility in counting prior AFRPS enrollment time under the FDA Animal Food Safety Inspection Contract toward the “five years” threshold for determining when a program moves from development to maintenance, and programs may move to maintenance funding after they are confirmed as fully implemented through an FDA Audit Staff assessment.

Track 2, the AFRPS Maintenance Phase, is intended for programs that have already received five years of AFRPS cooperative agreement funding and are moving into sustained operations and continuous improvement. For maintenance applicants, the NOFO notes that if a program is not currently deemed fully implemented and has pending corrective actions from its most recent FDA Audit Staff assessment, those corrective actions must be addressed in the strategic improvement plan submitted with the application. Maintenance funding levels are tiered into three levels, designed to be proportional to each jurisdiction’s workload volume and costs; applicants are expected to choose an amount and project period that fits their actual program needs and assigned tier.

Track 3 is an optional Mutual Reliance funding option, available only to programs in the maintenance category that are already recognized as being in full implementation by FDA Audit Staff before applying. This option is aimed at taking a mature, fully implemented program and investing in more advanced integration with FDA and other state partners, such as standardized processes for sharing work products, aligning systems, and improving how inspections and compliance actions can be leveraged across agencies.

Key administrative details include that the funding instrument is a cooperative agreement under CFDA/Assistance Listing 93.103, the activity category is Agriculture/Consumer Protection/Food and Nutrition, eligible applicants are state governments, and the agency is FDA. The award ceiling listed is $300,000 (noted specifically for the development track), FDA anticipates about seven awards, and the posted closing date is April 1, 2027. Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a capacity-building and systems-integration investment: it helps states modernize and standardize their animal food regulatory programs to AFRPS, then sustain those capabilities, and for the most mature programs, expand into mutual reliance approaches that reduce duplication and strengthen the national animal food safety system.

• The Food and Drug Administration in the agriculture, consumer protection, food and nutrition sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Animal Food Regulatory Program Standards Implementation Development and Maintenance, with Mutual Reliance Initiatives 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 2025-06-25.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2027-04-01.
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $300,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments.

Apply for PAR 25 003

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: