Society News Archive

The Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) is pleased to announce the Radiation Response Volunteer Corps (RRVC) grant for 2012. CRCPD, in a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has funding for at least 10 grant awards not to exceed $25,000 each. The goal of this grant is to reach out to radiation professionals who have a desire to volunteer in their communities in the event of a radiological incident that would require population monitoring. As envisioned, population monitoring would take place at a community reception center and would utilize radiation professionals to help monitor the impacted population and oversee wash stations for decontamination.

In 2009-2011, a pilot radiation response volunteer project was conducted in five states and one municipality. Each state worked on unique aspects of the project, with the end result being an increased awareness of the different types of radiation professionals, the development of mechanisms for integrating radiation professionals into volunteer mechanisms and state response plans, and the performance of training for potential volunteers. The final report of that project can be found at the CRCPD website at http://www.crcpd.org/Homeland_Security/RRVC_FinalReport.pdf.

The CRCPD is inviting proposals from state radiation control programs, health department preparedness programs, and local nongovernment radiation professional organizations in partnership with radiation control and public health preparedness. This could include chapters of the Health Physics Society.

For more details on the specifics of the request for proposals, go to the CRCPD website. 

The deadline for the first round of grants was 31 January 2012.

Although proposals will be accepted throughout the year, in order to project a reasonable number of sub-awards per year, they ask that if your HPS chapter is interested in submitting a proposal during the first year of the project, send a Letter of Intent to Ruth McBurney, Executive Director of CRCPD at rmcburney@crcpd.org by 22 February 2012.