Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DD 23 001
The Birth Defects Study To Evaluate Pregnancy exposureS (BD-STEPS) funding opportunity (RFA DD 23 001) is a CDC cooperative agreement designed to strengthen and continue a long-running national research infrastructure focused on understanding why major structural birth defects and stillbirths happen, and what can be done to prevent them. The public health motivation is significant: birth defects occur in roughly 3 percent of U.S. births, contribute to about one in five infant deaths, and create major long-term medical and developmental burdens for children and families, along with substantial healthcare costs. Even with decades of progress, the causes of about two-thirds of birth defects remain unknown, which is why CDC continues investing in large, coordinated studies that can identify risk factors that smaller or shorter studies often cannot detect.
This opportunity sits within a broader history of federally supported collaboration. In 1996, Congress funded the Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (CBDRP), and CDC began supporting up to nine centers through cooperative agreements. Those centers have jointly carried out major case-control studies, first through the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), which collected information on deliveries from 1997 through 2011, and then through BD-STEPS, which began with deliveries in 2014 and continued data collection through 2023. The idea behind these studies is to systematically compare pregnancies affected by specific outcomes (like particular birth defects, or stillbirth) with unaffected pregnancies in order to identify differences in exposures, health conditions, treatments, infections, and genetics that may raise or lower risk. The end goal is not just publishing results, but generating findings solid enough to translate into practical public health prevention messages when the evidence supports that step.
A key feature of BD-STEPS is that it supports both epidemiologic and genetic research capacity, meaning it aims to pair detailed exposure and health information with biological or genetic data where appropriate. Over time, the study has been positioned to evaluate a range of potential risk factors including maternal health conditions, medication use, and environmental or infectious exposures. Recognizing that stillbirth (defined here as fetal death at 20 or more weeks of gestation) is an important but comparatively understudied outcome, CDC added a dedicated stillbirth case-control component to BD-STEPS in 2015. That addition reflects an intent to build comparable depth of evidence for stillbirth risk factors, particularly those that are potentially modifiable and therefore actionable for prevention.
The notice is structured into two components. Component A, labeled BD-STEPS Core, supports the core birth defects research capabilities of BD-STEPS, with an emphasis on three major domains: maternal chronic diseases and their treatments, infectious diseases during pregnancy, and medications used during pregnancy. This component is essentially the backbone that keeps the BD-STEPS platform functioning as a multi-site, standardized, high-quality research effort capable of producing results that are comparable across locations and over time. Component B, labeled BD-STEPS Stillbirth, specifically supports exploration of modifiable risk factors for stillbirths. A major programmatic rule is that Component B cannot stand alone; recipients seeking stillbirth funding must also apply for and receive concurrent Component A funding. Both new applicants and existing BD-STEPS recipients are encouraged to apply for both components, which signals CDCs interest in integrated sites that can contribute to the birth defects work while also expanding the stillbirth evidence base.
Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity using a cooperative agreement mechanism, which typically means CDC expects substantial involvement in coordination, technical guidance, and collaboration rather than simply issuing funds with minimal federal engagement. The activity category is health (CFDA 93.073). The eligible applicant pool is broad and includes state, county, and local governments; tribal governments and tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; for-profit organizations (including small businesses); and other eligible entities as clarified in the opportunity. CDC anticipated up to nine awards, with an award ceiling listed at $800,000. The opportunity was posted with a creation date of November 1, 2022, and an original closing date of January 17, 2023, with electronic applications due by 11:59 pm Eastern Time on the due date.
Taken together, BD-STEPS is best understood as an effort to maintain and enhance a national, multi-center research platform that can detect and test relationships between pregnancy exposures and serious outcomes, especially when those relationships may be complex, involve multiple factors, or require large sample sizes to study reliably. By focusing on chronic disease and treatment, infections, and medication exposures, and by pairing that with a dedicated stillbirth component aimed at modifiable risks, the program is built to generate evidence that can eventually inform clinical guidance, risk communication, and prevention strategies at the population level.Apply for RFA DD 23 001
- The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - ERA in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Birth Defects Study To Evaluate Pregnancy exposureS (BD-STEPS)" and is now available to receive applicants.
- Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.073.
- This funding opportunity was created on Nov 01, 2022.
- Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 17, 2023 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.)
- Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $800,000.00 in funding.
- The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 9 candidate(s).
- Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification), 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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