The Center for BioDefense will expand its activities relating to protecting the civilian population against biological threats and building the nation’s public health infrastructure.

A number of avenues for funding will be pursued:

• From the CDC, funding would be used for disease surveillance, medical and public health response preparation and planning, as well as research and development.

• Congress has stated that rebuilding the country’s public health infrastructure should be given the highest priority. In that context, UMDNJ would request funding for communications, information technology, laboratories, hospital capacity, and trained professionals essential to building a public health infrastructure.

• We would also seek funding from HHS that would support our activities to network with local, state and federal agencies in order to respond to terrorist acts with public health implications.