The Centers for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP) program was established in 2000 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to strengthen bioterrorism and emergency preparedness by linking academic expertise to state and local health agency needs.
The original CPHP program closed in August 2010[1] and was replaced by the Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers (PERLC) cooperative agreement program.
[2] These initially funded centers formed a nucleus upon which to build a response to the events on September 11, 2001.
[3] In 2001, the CDC and the Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) added resources to the A-CPHP that allowed for the stepwise expansion of the program to more schools of public health.
In 2009, there were 27 Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH)-accredited schools of public health with established and funded centers:[4] From 2004 to 2010, the CDC gave $134 million in funding to the Centers for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP) Cooperative Agreement program; 27 CPHPs within accredited schools of public health received the funds.