Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Environmental Assessment 8623D, 401 M St. SW, Washington, DC 20460

A -- REQUEST FOR APPLICATIONS FOR A COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT TO CO-SPONSOR A NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BIOLOGICAL VARIABILITY WITHIN AND BETWEEN CHILDREN FROM DIFFERENT U.S. RACIAL/ETHNICITY GROUPS SOL NCEA-W-99-01 DUE 052499 POC David Kelley, 202-564-3263 WEB: National Center for Environmental Assessment web site, http://www.epa.gov/ncea. E-MAIL: David Kelley, kelley.dave@epa.gov. The National Center for Environmental Assessment -- Washington Office (NCEA-W), within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD), is issuing this "Request for Applications" (RFA) for a cooperative agreement to provide assistance in cosponsoring a national conference that will examine the scientific evidence on the question of the "Biological Variability Within and Between Children From Different U.S. Racial/Ethnicity Groups: Implications for Environmental Risk Assessment." In response to the Presidential Executive Orders as well as the Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Office of Research and Development, the Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, and the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response wish to support a national conference. The purpose of the conference is to convene a group of experts to present, discuss, and evaluate environmental health issues as they relate to the biodiversity that exists within and between American children. The specific goals of the conference include the following: to discuss the concept of race/ethnicity and its application in environmental health risk assessment and determine if/how a more biologically based concept can be developed and utilized; to discuss and describe the most current up-to-date information showing biological variability and differences within and between children from different racial/ethnic groups (i.e., anthropometric, physiologic, biochemical, pharmacokinetic, metabolic, toxicological, endocrinological, etc.) and to determine how these differences impact risk assessment; to discuss racial/ethnic differences in diseases (i.e., asthma, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, cancer, etc.) and genetic polymorphisms and the role these differences play in childrens' susceptibility to harmful environmental agents; to identify and discuss how the current research and methods can be used for assessing environmental health risks to children from different racial/ethnicity groups; to identify future research needs for better assessing those environmental health risks to children that are influenced by racial/ethnicity factors; and to publish the proceedings of the conference as a special issue of the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives. The value of the cooperative agreement award is estimated to range from $60,000 to $140,000 over a period of two years depending upon funding availability. Applications must be postmarked, dated by a delivery service, or marked received by NCEA-W personnel by May 24, 1999. Applications will be reviewed and evaluated by guidelines as set forth in this document. Interested parties are invited to submit a competitive Cooperative Agreement Application, including a full and detailed project application for funding consideration. The EPA reserves the right not to make any awards from this solicitation. Interagency agreements related to this activity are not solicited. Solicitation packages can be found on the NCEA web site at http://www.epa.gov/ncea. Information about the full application process and application forms are provided in the "Application Kit for Assistance," which can be requested from the EPA contact person listed above. Posted 03/23/99 (W-SN311774). (0082)

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