USDA NADPRP FY2027: $80 Million, a $500,000 Floor, and Universities Locked Out of the Lead Role

In fiscal 2025, the USDA's National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP) spread $15.3 million across 68 projects. Its largest award was $513,158, to UC Davis for biosecurity training for dairy workers during the H5N1 outbreak. About half of the projects were led by universities, and several went directly to tribal nations.

The fiscal 2027 competition, which APHIS opened on November 5, 2026, looks like a different program. It offers $80 million in two tracks. The smallest award it expects to make is $500,000, which is just $13,158 less than the biggest award in 2025. And the universities that dominated the last round can no longer be the prime applicant on either track.

Applications for both tracks are due January 7, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time through ezFedGrants. That leaves about eight weeks, and the winter holidays fall inside them. Anyone in animal health who has been relying on a university partner to lead needs to rework their plan now.

Where the Money Came From

NADPRP was created by Section 12101 of the 2018 Farm Bill. Its sister programs are the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN) and the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank (NAVVCB). For most of their existence, the three shared a modest annual pot.

The 2025 reconciliation law changed that. APHIS's November 5 announcement says annual funding for the three programs "increased from $30 million to $233 million beginning in fiscal year 2026." The NOFOs cite the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; the press release uses the name "Working Families Tax Cuts Act." Both refer to the same funding stream.

The release also lays out how APHIS plans to spend NADPRP money:

The vaccine bank's increase is larger still. APHIS says it has put "more than $85 million in NAVVCB since FY2020" and will add "over $153 million in new investments" in fiscal 2027, mostly for foot-and-mouth disease vaccine antigen concentrate and diagnostic kits.

The threats behind the spending are current. In the first ten days of November, APHIS confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza in dairy herds in Indiana and Oregon. It also began hiring for what it calls the nation's largest facility to combat New World screwworm. The press release names screwworm, HPAI, African swine fever and foot-and-mouth disease as the program's focus diseases, along with the Asian longhorned tick and Theileria orientalis Ikeda.

Two Tracks, Two Very Different Competitions

Earlier NADPRP rounds used a single competitive notice. For fiscal 2027, APHIS split it into two notices with separate eligibility lists, award sizes and priorities.

Industry Preparedness (USDA-APHIS-10025-VSSP0000-27-0001):

• Funding: $40 million for roughly 15 to 20 awards of $500,000 to $4,000,000.
• Eligible applicants: state or national livestock, poultry or aquaculture producer organizations "with direct and significant economic interest" in production. State, national, allied or regional veterinary organizations and specialty boards recognized by the AVMA can also apply.
• Priorities: five topics. They are FAD communication, training and exercises, biosecurity, animal movement and continuity of business, and applied research with "clear and direct value to livestock producers during an animal disease outbreak," such as better depopulation, disposal and decontamination methods.

State Preparedness (USDA-APHIS-10025-VSSP0000-27-0002):

• Funding: $40 million for roughly 40 awards of $500,000 to $2,000,000.
• Eligible applicants: state departments of agriculture, state offices of the chief animal health official, and regional response alliances. The NOFO names four alliances: MSPSA, NESAASA, SAADRA and WASAR.
• Priorities: six topics. They are training and exercises, FAD response stockpiles, FAD response plans, biosecurity, traceability (including RFID infrastructure), and FAD data sharing. Data-sharing projects "must use USDA compliant electronic messaging standards."

The arithmetic says something about each track. With around 40 awards in the State track and about 50 states, plus territories and four regional alliances, a well-prepared state agriculture department has a better chance of funding here than in almost any other competitive federal program. The Industry track runs the other way: fewer awards, much larger ones, and a pool of national commodity groups and veterinary associations big enough to compete hard for the $4 million ceiling.

Universities, Tribes and Federal Labs: From Prime to Partner

Both NOFOs list "2027 Highlights and Changes" and state the shift plainly: eligible entities "are limited to" producer and veterinary organizations on one track and state agencies and regional alliances on the other.

That is a big change for the institutions that led the fiscal 2025 round. Iowa State, Ohio State, the University of Minnesota, Texas A&M and UC Davis each led several projects in APHIS's FY2025 spending plan. The Comanche Nation, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa each received direct awards for outbreak preparedness. A USGS science center received $214,946 to study whether spreading dairy waste on land spreads H5N1.

None of them can lead a fiscal 2027 application. APHIS does, however, keep them in the program. Both notices "encourage" collaborative proposals with subawards or contracts to "States, Tribes, Tribal organizations, universities, schools of veterinary medicine, NAHLN laboratories," and others with relevant expertise.

For a university extension program or a veterinary school, this changes the job. Responding to a call yourself becomes recruiting a lead applicant: a state department of agriculture, a state veterinarian's office, a commodity association, or a state veterinary medical association. Three practical consequences follow:

• The prime decides the scope. A university that wants to run its depopulation research or train swine sample collectors has to fit that work inside a project the state or industry group owns. The review criteria score "the strength and relevance" of alignment with the prime's track priorities. Faculty interests alone will not carry it.
• The indirect-cost ceiling follows you. NADPRP caps indirect costs at 10 percent of total project costs or the negotiated rate, whichever is lower, and the cap "also applies to sub-applicants." A university subawardee with a 55 percent negotiated rate recovers 10 percent of total costs.
• Prior approval is built in. Subawards need written APHIS approval. If the subrecipient, activities and costs are spelled out in the application budget, approval of the award counts as that approval. Name your partners in the Financial Plan. Do not leave them as "to be determined."

Tribal nations face the hardest loss. In 2025 a tribe could apply directly to plan for a disease outbreak on its own lands. In 2027 it has to work through a state agency or an industry group, and many tribal governments have a deliberately limited relationship with the state.

How Applications Will Be Scored

Both tracks use the same weighted criteria:

The largest share of the score, 35 percent, goes to alignment and need, not to scientific innovation. The applications most likely to win will name a specific gap: a stockpile shortfall found in an after-action review, a traceability failure during an HPAI quarantine, or a market or auction with no biosecurity plan. They then show how the money closes it. For the State track's stockpile priority, APHIS says projects "must address high-priority needs" identified "through recent disease and pest outbreaks, FAD response exercises, or other assessments." So cite the exercise report or the outbreak.

The format rules leave little room for error. The Work Plan is limited to 20 pages. Applicants must use the new OMB-approved NADPRP Work Plan and Financial Plan templates, and APHIS lists template compliance as an initial screening criterion. An application on the old template, or one that is missing a required document, is removed before merit review. Each eligible organization may submit up to three applications, but APHIS "encourages" one comprehensive proposal that covers several priorities.

There is no cost-share requirement. Any cost share you volunteer, if APHIS accepts it, "becomes legally binding," must be reported on the SF-425, and is subject to audit. Unless you have a strategic reason to offer it, leave it out.

A Calendar That Runs Through the Holidays

ezFedGrants is the part applicants most often underestimate. APHIS estimates up to 10 business days to set up an ezFedGrants profile and register the Authorized Organizational Representative, separate from SAM.gov registration. A state commodity association applying to the federal government for the first time, which the Industry track's redesign is meant to attract, should start both registrations this week. Ten business days counted back from January 7, with the Christmas and New Year's holidays, lands in mid-December.

Recipients also report more often than before. Performance and financial reports are due semi-annually, each 30 days after the reporting period closes. Producer groups without grants staff should include that work in the budget, and the 20 percent budget-justification criterion rewards applicants who do.

What to Do This Month

If you are a state department of agriculture or state veterinarian's office, this is very likely the most favorable federal competition you will see this year. Pull your latest FAD exercise after-action reports and HPAI response reviews. Pick the two or three gaps that cost the most time in the last outbreak and build one consolidated proposal near the $2 million ceiling.

If you lead a producer or veterinary association, decide early whether you are a national or a state applicant. A state pork producers' association applying for $600,000 is a different competition from a national cattle organization proposing a $4 million traceability system. The Industry track's 15 to 20 awards will reward groups that can show members actually adopting the tools.

If you are at a university, veterinary school, NAHLN lab or tribal nation, contact your state veterinarian and your state commodity groups before Thanksgiving. Bring a defined scope, a budget built under the 10 percent indirect cap, and a short concept note they can put into their Work Plan. The primes now hold the applications, and many of them will be looking for partners who reduce their workload.

NADPRP grew fivefold in one year. Very few federal programs offer this much new money with no match and with a reachable number of awards per state, so it is worth applying even with the January deadline. Granted can help a first-time applicant fit a project to the template rubric and get it submitted before the holidays.