>>USF a partner in new Homeland Security Center of Excellence

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Tampa, FL (Dec. 8, 2005) -- The University of South Florida Center for Biological Defense (CBD), as a member of a consortium led by Johns Hopkins University, has been awarded a Center of Excellence grant by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The USF CBD anticipates receiving $150,000 a year over the next three years to help study how the nation can best prevent, prepare for and respond to high-consequence disasters or terrorist attacks.

The DHS Centers of Excellence bring together the nation's leading experts and focus its most talented researchers on a variety of homeland security threats.  There were 35 applications submitted for this competitive award -- the fifth Homeland Security Center of Excellence to be funded by DHS. This fifth center is formally titled the Center for the Study of High Consequence Event Preparedness and Response. 

"This award will help the USF Center for Biological Defense further advance its research capabilities at the national level and better prepare Florida's public health professionals and first responders to respond to homeland security threats," said CBD Director Jacqueline Cattani, a USF professor of public health.

Recognized for its biodefense and emerging infectious disease research, education and training activities, the CDB is supported by funding obtained through the support of Congressman C.W. "Bill" Young over the past five years.  Johns Hopkins approached the USF CBD in early 2005 to participate in responding to the DHS request. To enhance institutional diversity and increase the multidisciplinary nature of the proposal, the CBD alerted Johns Hopkins to the Florida Consortium on Homeland Security, which was also included in the proposal.

Projects to be conducted by the USF CBD include education and training for the public and emergency responders in high consequence event preparedness and response, and laboratory evaluation of detection technologies.

Other major partners of the new Center of Excellence led by Johns Hopkins are the Florida Consortium on Homeland Security (a cooperative alliance formed by the state's 11 public state universities), the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Morgan State University, the University of Buffalo, the American Red Cross, the Brookings Institute and CBRTA (a partner in the National Technology Alliance).

- USF Health -

USF Health is the University of South Florida's enterprise of researchers, teachers and clinicians dedicated to improving the full continuum of health. Its core is the colleges of Public Health, Nursing and Medicine, including a School of Physical Therapy, as well as the healthcare delivered by its 450 physicians and more than 100 nurse practitioners. In partnership with its affiliated hospitals, USF Health's research funding last year was $134 million -- more than half of which came from federal sources. Last year, USF Health clinicians cared for more than 31,000 patients and oversaw 396,000 outpatient visits.