# Western Association of Food and Drug Officials (WAFDO) Annual Educational Conference Assistance

> **NIH FDA R13** · WESTERN ASSOCIATION /FOOD/DRUG OFFICIALS · 2024 · $25,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Western Association for Food and Drug Officials
PAR-19-306
The mission of the annual WAFDO Annual Educational Conference (AEC) is to provide a
venue, either virtually or in-person, where public health field practitioners and program
managers, industry leaders, and academia from across the region can interact and share ideas
while receiving information on current trends and emerging issues impacting public health and
safety related to human and animal food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical products. The AEC
agenda typically includes presentations that will give participants an opportunity to learn about
state, local, national and international perspectives on all of these important public health and
consumer safety topics.
The annual WAFDO Conference is one of the most comprehensive and cost effective
educational opportunities in the Western region (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii,
Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, British Columbia,
Alberta, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Mexico) that addresses the range of current
public health issues facing federal, state and local regulatory programs. WAFDO keeps the cost
of the conference as low as possible in an effort to allow access to the conference to the widest
range of participants. The low cost of the conference enables public health professionals from
all levels of the regulatory community, industry and academia to participate.
The goal and objective of this application is to successfully apply for $25,000 a year for five
years (2021-2026 project period, $125,000 total award) under the FDA Support for Conferences
and Scientific Meetings (PAR-19-306) announcement so that WAFDO can:
 Provide a high quality, comprehensive virtual conference for its 2021 annual educational
conference.
 Provide financial assistance for attendees to travel to future annual educational
 conferences (2022-2025) who might not otherwise be able to travel due to budget
 limitations or travel restrictions.
 Provide attendees with appropriate printed materials and other conference resources.
 Fund conference room and audio-visual equipment costs for the conference.
The 2021 WAFDO AEC will be held in a virtual environment due to the prospect of ongoing
COVID gathering and travel restrictions. This application assumes that future annual
conferences starting in 2022 will be able to be held in person with no COVID or travel
restrictions in place. If this assumption is false, WAFDO will utilize any awarded funds to defray
costs associated with additional virtual deliveries.
The annual educational conference will contribute to the sharing and discussion of current
human and animal food, drug, cosmetic, and medical product safety topics in order to further
mutual reliance between fellow public health entities and therefore move closer to a fully
integrated public health and safety system.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10901850
- **Project number:** 5R13FD007383-04
- **Recipient organization:** WESTERN ASSOCIATION /FOOD/DRUG OFFICIALS
- **Principal Investigator:** Luisa Castro
- **Activity code:** R13 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $25,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-07-05 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10901850

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10901850, Western Association of Food and Drug Officials (WAFDO) Annual Educational Conference Assistance (5R13FD007383-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10901850. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*