Collecting Violent Death Information Using the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) | CDC RFA CE18 1804

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA CE18 1804

The grant opportunity "Collecting Violent Death Information Using the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)" is a CDC cooperative agreement designed to help states, territories, or districts build and operate a standardized surveillance system for violent deaths. The core public health premise behind the award is that violence is preventable, but prevention depends on having accurate, detailed, and timely information about how violent deaths occur. CDC frames the need using national burden figures, noting that more than 64,000 people died violently in the United States in 2016, including 44,965 suicides and 19,362 homicides, with estimated economic costs exceeding $77 billion due to medical care and lost productivity. The funding supports the infrastructure and work needed to gather the facts behind these deaths so jurisdictions can design targeted prevention strategies and so CDC can compile a stronger national picture of violent mortality.

NVDRS is described as a state-based surveillance system that integrates multiple data sources into one incident-based record. Awardees are expected to use CDC guidance and a CDC web-based data entry system to link information from death certificates, coroner/medical examiner reports (including toxicology findings), and law enforcement reports. This multi-source approach is central to NVDRS because it goes beyond basic counts and causes of death by capturing circumstances and contextual details that are often scattered across agencies. The resulting dataset is meant to answer practical prevention questions such as who is dying, where deaths occur, when they occur, and what factors were believed to contribute to or precipitate the death.

The opportunity uses a broad operational definition of violent death that includes deaths resulting from the intentional use of physical force or power against oneself or others, including suicides, homicides, and legal intervention deaths (deaths occurring when law enforcement uses deadly force in the line of duty). In addition to these categories, recipients must also collect information on two other groups of deaths that are not always straightforward: unintentional firearm injury deaths (where there was no intent to discharge the firearm) and deaths of undetermined intent where evidence suggests force was used. CDC includes these categories because some cases that initially appear unintentional or undetermined may share characteristics with violent deaths, and tracking them helps improve classification and understanding over time.

A distinguishing feature of NVDRS, emphasized in the notice, is the level of detail it captures and the way it organizes incidents. NVDRS is positioned as the first system to (1) provide detailed circumstance information for all major types of violent deaths, including short narratives summarizing what happened, (2) merge information across multiple official sources into a single record, and (3) link related deaths within the same incident or event pattern, such as multiple-victim homicides, suicide pacts, or homicide-suicide events. This incident-linking capability is particularly important for understanding dynamics that are invisible in single-source datasets, and it supports more precise prevention approaches (for example, differentiating isolated events from clustered or connected incidents).

Operationally, the cooperative agreement structure means recipients do the on-the-ground collection and analysis for their jurisdiction while CDC provides substantial involvement through guidance, standardization requirements, and access to the centralized web-based reporting platform. A key requirement is that all funded jurisdictions share de-identified data with CDC. CDC then combines these jurisdictional data into a multi-state database used to inform national stakeholders and to make aggregated information available through public-facing tools, including NVDRS summary outputs hosted within CDC injury data platforms.

From an administrative standpoint, this funding opportunity is issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, within the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. It is listed as a discretionary award using a cooperative agreement funding instrument under CFDA 93.136. The opportunity number is CDC-RFA-CE18-1804. Eligibility is primarily aimed at state governments (with additional eligible entities referenced in the original eligibility text). The notice anticipated up to 10 awards, with an award ceiling of $761,000. The posting indicates it was created June 4, 2018, with an original application closing date of August 7, 2018 (applications due electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date). For implementation specifics, CDC points applicants to the NVDRS Implementation Manual, which lays out the required data elements, coding guidance, and operational procedures used to keep reporting consistent across jurisdictions.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - NCIPC in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Collecting Violent Death Information Using the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.136.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 04, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 07, 2018 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., 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 $761,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for CDC RFA CE18 1804

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