The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is seeking applications for research and evaluation studies to produce practical knowledge that has the potential to improve the examination and interpretation of physical evidence in forensic science laboratories across the community of practice.
Donor Name: National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/26/2023
Size of the Grant: $1,500,000.00
Grant Duration: 60 months
Details:
With this solicitation, NIJ seeks proposals for rigorous research and evaluation projects that will:
- Identify and inform the forensic community of best practices through the evaluation of existing laboratory protocols; and/or
- Have a direct and immediate impact on laboratory efficiency and assist in making laboratory policy decisions.
The intent of this program is to direct the findings of this research and evaluation toward the identification of the most efficient, accurate, reliable, and cost-effective methods for the identification, analysis, and interpretation of physical evidence for criminal justice purposes.
Applicants are encouraged to propose multidisciplinary research teams to build on the complementary strengths of different methods and areas of subject matter expertise. NIJ also seeks proposals that include consideration and measurement of issues of diversity, discrimination, and bias across age, gender and gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, as applicable.
NIJ seeks proposals that include robust, creative, and multi-pronged dissemination strategies that include strategic partnerships with organizations and associations that are best equipped to ensure that research findings lead to changes in policies and practices.
Goals and Objectives
NIJ’s Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories program is intended to meet the following goals and objectives. Proposals should address at least one of the goals specified below:
Assessing Existing Laboratory Protocols — Improve the understanding of scientific rationale underpinning existing laboratory processes.
To achieve this goal, applicants should perform research and evaluation of existing laboratory schemes and methods to determine possible improvements. Examples of such projects include:
- Evaluation of minimum acceptance criteria of analytical data, such as mass spectra, generated in case samples.
- Evaluation of accuracy gained from additional orthogonal testing of controlled substance samples.
- Evaluation of the effectiveness of a blind verification program for technical reviews.
- Evaluation of implementation of software and statistical methods used for the interpretation of DNA mixtures.
Evaluating Emerging Methods — Assess the value of emerging laboratory processes.
To achieve this goal, applicants should conduct research to compare emerging methods to those currently used to accomplish the same purpose in publicly funded forensic laboratories. These evaluations should consider factors such as accuracy, reliability, cost, and analysis time. Examples of such projects include:
- Comparison of a newly developed comprehensive method to existing multi-step method(s).
- Comparison of methodology or instrumentation new to the laboratory or field to instrumentation that is currently used in the laboratory in order to investigate relative form factors such as accuracy, reliability, cost, analysis time, etc.
Priority Areas
There is a body of evidence that racial and ethnic minority groups are underrepresented in science and engineering fields at all levels.[1] [2] NIJ will give special consideration in award decisions to proposals from Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).
Minority-Serving Institutions include:
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
- Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSI)
- Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
- Alaska Native-serving Institutions or Native Hawaiian-serving Institutions (ANNH)
- Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI)
- Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institutions (AANAPISI)
- Native American-serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI).
Funding Information
- Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation $1,500,000.00
- Period of Performance Duration (Months): 60
Eligible Applicants
- Special district governments
- For profit organizations other than small businesses
- Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities
- County governments
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Small businesses
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- City or township governments
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Independent school districts
- State governments
- Individuals
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
