Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) - Region 2 | DHS 21 GPD 111 02 01

Opportunity Information: Apply for DHS 21 GPD 111 02 01

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) for Region 2 is a discretionary federal grant opportunity administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through FEMA. It was funded under the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2021 (Public Law 116-260) and is designed to strengthen how jurisdictions in the region plan and work together for extremely high-impact disasters. In practical terms, the program is meant to move regional partners beyond isolated, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction planning and toward coordinated approaches that function under the intense pressure, scale, and complexity of a truly catastrophic event.

The core purpose of the RCPGP is to build regional capacity to manage catastrophic incidents by improving and expanding collaboration for catastrophic incident preparedness. The opportunity specifically emphasizes closing known capability gaps, encouraging innovative regional solutions, and building on preparedness work that is already underway. This means the grant is not just about creating new plans for the sake of having them, but about targeting real shortcomings that have been identified and investing in regional methods that improve prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. The program’s framing makes it clear that catastrophic incidents cannot be managed effectively through fragmented efforts; they require a cohesive, regional approach because impacts and resource needs will cross city, county, and sometimes state boundaries.

The grant uses the National Response Framework (4th edition, 2019) definition of a “catastrophic incident.” Under that definition, a catastrophic incident can be natural or human-caused, including terrorism, and is characterized by extraordinary levels of mass casualties, widespread damage, or severe disruption. The consequences can be so extensive that they significantly affect populations, critical infrastructure, the environment, the economy, national morale, and even core government functions. By grounding the program in this definition, DHS/FEMA is signaling that the focus is on worst-case or near-worst-case scenarios where ordinary mutual aid and routine emergency operations may be overwhelmed, and where planning must account for large-scale coordination challenges, sustained operations, and complex cascading impacts.

Key administrative details help clarify who the grant is for and what the funding looks like. The opportunity title is “Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) - Region 2,” with Funding Opportunity Number DHS 21 GPD 111 02 01. It is categorized as a discretionary grant with a funding activity category of Disaster Prevention and Relief, and it is associated with CFDA number 97.111. Eligible applicants include state governments, county governments, and city or township governments, reflecting the program’s emphasis on public-sector leadership and cross-jurisdictional coordination at multiple levels of government.

The opportunity was created on May 20, 2021, and the original application closing date was July 16, 2021. The maximum award amount (award ceiling) listed is $1,200,000, and the program anticipated making around 20 awards. Taken together, these details suggest a competitive grant environment where applicants would typically need to present a strong regional concept, demonstrate clear need tied to capability gaps, and show how their proposed work would measurably strengthen catastrophic preparedness across partners rather than benefiting only a single jurisdiction.

Overall, this grant opportunity is aimed at helping Region 2 jurisdictions better prepare for incidents so large and disruptive that they stress every part of the emergency management system. The emphasis on regional collaboration, gap-closing investments, and innovative solutions reflects a recognition that catastrophic preparedness depends on relationships, interoperable approaches, and shared planning assumptions that are established before a crisis occurs, not improvised during one.

• The Department of Homeland Security, Department of Homeland Security - FEMA in the disaster prevention and relief sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) - Region 2" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 97.111.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 20, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 16, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,200,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments.

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