Rapid Response Team (RRT) Cooperative Agreement

The Rapid Response Team (RRT) Cooperative Agreement aims to enhance the national integrated food safety system by aligning federal, state, and local efforts to respond more effectively to human and animal food emergencies. It focuses on strengthening collaboration between epidemiology, laboratory analysis, and environmental health or regulatory functions to enable faster detection, containment, and removal of contaminated food from the market. Participants are expected to adopt Incident Command System and National Incident Management System frameworks to establish unified command structures during emergencies, ensuring coordinated, scalable, and efficient responses to all types of food safety hazards while conducting thorough root cause investigations to prevent future incidents. The agreement also supports critical infrastructure development through training programs, enhanced data sharing and analysis, improved communication protocols, and the creation of best practices and resources to build sustained national capacity. Continuous process improvement is central to the initiative, with an emphasis on standardizing procedures and expanding technical capabilities across jurisdictions. Administered by the Food and Drug Administration under the Department of Health and Human Services, the program is open to eligible entities seeking funding to bolster their emergency response infrastructure and is coordinated through Janelle Fundersburg, the designated point of contact for inquiries and grant-related matters.