Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Program
The Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Program, managed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides critical support to public health laboratories. APHL develops guidance to support public health laboratories and shares the importance and impact of this funding.
Questions?
Contact the Infectious Diseases team: [email protected]
About ELC Cooperative Agreement
The ELC Cooperative Agreement provides cross-cutting and disease-specific funding support for public health laboratories through CDC.
Cross-Cutting Funding
Cross-cutting ELC funding supports activities that strengthen epidemiology and laboratory capacity as well as health information systems for rapid disease detection and outbreak response. In the laboratory, these funds are also used to support scientists who can work across various areas of a laboratory, staff liaisons between laboratory and epidemiology programs, laboratory equipment and maintenance contracts, courier services and electronic laboratory reporting systems. Cross-cutting funding is a mandatory expenditure of the Prevention and Public Health Fund, part of the Affordable Care Act.
Disease-specific Fundin​​​g
ELC disease-specific funding supports rapid surveillance, detection and response for threats, such as foodborne diseases, seasonal influenza, vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistant infections and vaccine-preventable diseases. Additionally, this source provides emergency funding for emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19 and Zika, allowing the response to be scaled-up based on need. Disease-specific funding is appropriated annually by Congress.
APHL Support for ELC
APHL supports CDC and our member laboratories by providing guidance and sharing their successes.
Guidance for Public Health Laboratories
APHL develops a guidance tool to assist public health laboratories in responding to the annual notice of funding opportunity from CDC and provides more context or details on how the laboratory should approach each area of the NOFO. Please note that the resources below are restricted to APHL members only; please sign in to access:
- 2026 APHL ELC Guidance
- Automated Extraction and PCR Platform Marketing and Support Status
- Nucleic Acid Amplification Platform Investigative Summary Report
- Nucleic Acid Extraction Platform Investigative Summary Report
Stories from the Field
These stories explore how public health laboratories innovated and enhanced their work, which was made possible by recent funding opportunities and highlights the critical need for ongoing, cross-cutting and sustainable funding.
By Donna Campisano, specialist, Communications, APHL The Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity (ELC) Program provides cross-cutting, disease-specific funding support for the nation’s public health laboratories through the US Centers for Disease...
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