The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) seeks applications for funding to the FY 2023 Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program – Competitive, to improve forensic science and medical examiner/coroner services, including services provided by laboratories operated by states and units of local government.
Donor Name: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 05/24/2023
Size of the Grant: $500,000
Grant Duration: 36 months
Details:
Under the Coverdell Competitive Program, state administering agencies (SAAs) may apply for both formula and competitive funds. Units of local government may apply for competitive funds. This solicitation is ONLY for competitive funds. An applicant seeking to apply for Coverdell formula funds (consistent with 34 U.S.C. §. Reduction in forensic analysis backlogs is considered an improvement in timeliness of services.
The result of Coverdell grants made directly to units of local government should be a demonstrated improvement over current operations in forensic science or medical examiner/coroner services provided by the local jurisdiction.
Objectives
An applicant should address the objectives that are relevant to their proposed program/project in the Goals, Objectives, Deliverables and Timeline web-based form.
A state or unit of local government that receives a Coverdell grant must use the grant for one or more of the following six purposes/objectives:
- To carry out all or a substantial part of a program intended to improve the quality and timeliness of forensic science or medical examiner/coroner services in the state, including those services provided by laboratories operated by the state and those operated by units of local government within the state.
- To eliminate a backlog in the analysis of forensic science evidence, including, among other things, a backlog with respect to firearms examination, latent prints, impression evidence, toxicology, digital evidence, fire evidence, controlled substances, forensic pathology, questioned documents, and trace evidence.
- To train, assist, and employ forensic laboratory personnel and medicolegal death investigators, as needed, to eliminate such a backlog.
- To address emerging forensic science issues (such as statistics, contextual bias, and uncertainty of measurement) and emerging forensic science technology (such as high throughput automation, statistical software, and new types of instrumentation).
- To educate and train forensic pathologists.
- To fund medicolegal death investigation systems to facilitate accreditation of medical examiner and coroner offices and certification of medicolegal death investigators.
Important Note: Congress has appropriated funding to help the forensic science community address the specific challenges crime laboratories are confronting related to the proliferation of opioids and synthetic drugs. To address these issues, BJA plans to allocate approximately 55 percent of available funds to specifically target the challenges that opioids and synthetic drugs have brought to the forensic science community.
Funding Information
- Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation: $4,690,617
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards: $500,000
- Period of performance: 36 months
Eligible Applicants
- City or township governments
- County governments
- State governments
- For the purposes of this solicitation, “state” means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
