F25AS00376 MENTOR - ApeHealth | F25AS00376

Opportunity Information: Apply for F25AS00376

F25AS00376 MENTOR - ApeHealth is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (CFDA 15.629) offered through a cooperative agreement. It sits under the Service mission to conserve fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats for the benefit of the American people, and it is specifically aligned with the African Great Ape Conservation Fund (GACF-Africa), which focuses on the long-term conservation of African great apes in the wild. The need for this program is driven by the fact that all African great apes are listed by the IUCN Red List as Endangered or Critically Endangered, with declining population trends across nearly all subspecies, and infectious disease is identified as one of the major threats contributing to those declines. While some regions have expanded site-level veterinary support over recent decades, the opportunity gap for Central African nationals to gain advanced, practical wildlife health skills remains a serious constraint, with knock-on effects for wildlife conservation and broader human and ecosystem health security.

The grant seeks proposals for a targeted three-year Mentoring for Environmental Training in Outreach and Resource conservation (MENTOR) Program focused on building durable capacity within Central African ape range states. The intent is not simply to fund short-term field interventions, but to strengthen the people, institutions, and professional connections needed to detect, prevent, and respond to disease risks affecting great apes and other wildlife over the long run. The opportunity frames wildlife health as part of a larger health security picture, emphasizing that understanding disease dynamics at the human-wildlife interface supports pandemic prevention and preparedness, which in turn is positioned as a benefit that ultimately safeguards the American public as well.

The program has three core objectives. First, it aims to strengthen the capacity of wildlife veterinary practitioners in Central Africa to address health threats to great apes in the wild, implying hands-on, field-relevant skills and applied problem solving for real disease events and surveillance needs. Second, it aims to strengthen the capacity of academic institutions in Central Africa, particularly veterinary colleges, so that training pipelines and curricula can consistently produce professionals equipped to handle wildlife and great ape health challenges. Third, it seeks to strengthen and sustain the wider great ape health community through a professional network, reinforcing collaboration, information sharing, standards, mentorship relationships, and continuity beyond the life of the award.

Because the award instrument is a cooperative agreement, the selected recipient should expect substantial engagement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during implementation, including a co-design process to shape how the MENTOR program is carried out over the three-year period. In practice, this typically means the project is implemented in close coordination with the agency rather than operating as a fully independent, grantee-directed effort, with shared planning, iterative refinement, and active alignment with agency priorities and compliance expectations.

Eligibility is broad and designed to accommodate the mix of actors usually needed for workforce development and cross-border conservation health efforts. Applicants may include multi-national secretariats, U.S. and foreign non-profits and NGOs, community and indigenous organizations, and U.S. and foreign institutions of higher education (both public and private, as long as they are non-government entities). A key restriction is that funds cannot be used to provide assistance to governments, parts of government, or government employees in countries that USAID has notified the Service are ineligible for assistance, which is an important compliance consideration for project design, staffing, training participation, and any planned partnerships that might involve government-linked institutions or personnel.

The opportunity was created on December 5, 2024, and the original application closing date is February 4, 2025. The stated award ceiling is $5,300,000. The notice does not clearly specify the number of expected awards (it appears blank or incomplete in the source data), so applicants would typically plan as if the competition could result in a single large award or a small number of awards, and should review the full funding announcement for any later clarification on that point.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the environment sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "F25AS00376 MENTOR - ApeHealth" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.629.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-12-05.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-02-04. (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 $5,300,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Others.

Apply for F25AS00376

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