This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) announces a cooperative agreement funding opportunity for an information sharing and analysis organization (ISAO) for the Health Care and Public Health (HPH) Sector.

The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to build the capacity of an information

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sharing and analysis organization (ISAO) to share information bi-directionally with the HPH Sector and HHS about cyber threats and provide outreach and education that improves cyber security awareness and equips HPH Sector stakeholders to take action in response to cyber threat information shared by the ISAO.

Under this FOA, the awardee will receive Federal grant funds to expand upon existing infrastructure and sector-specific expertise needed to function as a health care specific ISAO.

This initiative is designed to leverage existing financial and technical resources from Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).

This project will also include collaboration with Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration (ASA) (including the Office of the Chief Information Officer’s (OCIO) Office of Information Security (OIS) and the Office of Security and Strategic Information’s (OSSI) Cyber Threat Intelligence Program (CTIP).

ASPR and ONC are both issuing separate funding opportunity announcements with scopes of work specific to each funding source (ONC opportunity:
NAP-AX-16-006; CFDA #9 3. 893).

Funds awarded to the selected applicant under this FOA will be used to achieve measurable outcomes, as described within Section I.

This collaboration will provide the opportunity to potentially leverage two complementary Federal funding sources.

This will allow for the comprehensive promotion and development of cybersecurity information sharing capabilities.

ASPR anticipates providing funds over a five year period (subject to availability of appropriations and satisfactory performance of the recipient during the previous budget period) to develop a health care specific ISAO, after which the awardee is expected to be self-sufficient.

Funding under this award will not be sufficient to, and is not intended to, fund the awardee’s entire operation.

Rather, ASPR and ONC intend that the successful awardee(s) will use the funding to expand the awardee’s scope of bi-directional information sharing and outreach to include HHS and the entire HPH Sector, where the awardee has demonstrated that they are currently functioning as a cybersecurity threat sharing organization.

Thus, in order to qualify for this funding, applicants are expected to demonstrate existing infrastructure, be currently functioning as an organization that is sharing cybersecurity threat information, and have the capability to expand under this cooperative agreement.