Deadline: 03-Jun-21
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is inviting proposals for the 2021 Research and Development in Forensic Science for Criminal Justice Purposes.
The purpose of the CFDA 16.560 (the National Institute of Justice Research, Evaluation, and Development Projects Grants program) is to foster research to develop new knowledge and tools to address the challenges of crime and justice in the United States.
With this solicitation, NIJ seeks proposals for rigorous basic or applied research and development projects. An NIJ forensic science research and development grant supports a discrete, specified, circumscribed project that will:
- Increase the body of knowledge to guide and inform forensic science policy and practice; or
- Lead to the production of useful material(s), device(s), system(s), or method(s) that have the potential for forensic application.
Goals and Objectives
- Proposals should address at least one of the goals specified below.
- Proposed projects that address more than one goal should be separated into discrete phases that clearly identify the goal to be addressed by each phase (additional information regarding the phasing of proposals can be found in Federal Award Information section).
- Proposed projects should include goals that speak to specific forensic science needs and challenges which, if resolved, will aid the criminal justice community to enforce the law, enhance public safety, prevent and reduce crime, and ensure fair and impartial administration of justice.
- While some late-stage applied research and development projects may be able to propose tangible or direct solutions, early-stage research projects are not required to result in immediate solutions.
- However, these early-stage research projects should clearly explain how the proposed objectives, once achieved, will produce knowledge that contributes to eventual solutions.
- Fundamental/Basic Research Goal: Improve the understanding of the accuracy, reliability, and measurement validity of forensic science disciplines. Applicants may refer to Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward by the National Research Council of the National Academies to review historical material relevant to this goal. If addressing this goal, projects should meet at least one of the following objectives:
- Conduct basic scientific research in the physical, life, and cognitive sciences that is designed to increase the knowledge underlying forensic science disciplines intended for use in the criminal justice system.
- Perform studies that examine the degree of accuracy and reliability of methods used by forensic scientists to achieve a more complete understanding of the scientific basis of forensic evidence and the interpretation of that evidence.
- Conduct research studies designed to further the understanding of quantifiable measures of uncertainty in the conclusions of forensic analyses, regardless of the sources of uncertainty.
- Develop new approaches to forensic analysis, including quantitation of analyses that are currently qualitative in nature (e.g., in the development of quantitative studies related to friction ridge analysis or other impression and pattern evidence).
- Applied Research Goal: Increase knowledge or understanding necessary to guide criminal justice policy and practice related to the forensic sciences. To achieve this goal, projects should meet at least one of the following objectives:
- Perform applied research to increase knowledge of physical evidence and/or its behavior. Examples include, but are not limited to, the study of fluid transfer and fluid dynamics of certain biological fluids (e.g., blood) to increase understanding of patterns deposited at crime scenes; the examination of chemical properties of evidence for the purpose of identifying source materials; studies of the behavior of chemical compounds of forensic interest in biological systems; research to better understand aged, degraded, limited, damaged, inhibited, or otherwise compromised physical evidence (e.g., studies on the effect of environmental factors on physical evidence; studies to increase the overall understanding of the processes and mechanisms that result in the inability to obtain analytical results from evidence).
- Perform evaluation studies of technologies that are expected to have application to forensic sciences in criminal justice settings. The purpose of an evaluation must be to test a new, modified, or previously untested technology to determine whether it is effective for forensic science application. The results of an evaluation study should contribute to generalizable knowledge that can be applied beyond a particular program/geography, and can inform other researchers, practitioners, and/or policymakers.
- Development Goal: Produce novel and useful materials, devices, systems, or methods that have the potential for forensic application for criminal justice purposes. For development projects, proposals should demonstrate potential for increased quality of result and/or decreased time/cost for forensic analyses as compared to current standard practices. In order to achieve this goal, projects should meet at least one of the following objectives:
- Improve the “front end” of the forensic analysis processes. Examples include, but are not limited to, the development of improved methods for detection and identification of evidence at crime scenes; the development of improved screening methods to help assess the probative value of forensic evidence (i.e., onsite presumptive and/or confirmatory analysis of evidence); the development of improved means to remotely detect forensic evidence at a crime scene in order to overcome scene hazards and prevent evidence contamination; the development of nondestructive or minimally destructive methods for evidentiary sample identification and/or collection; the development of improved tools or methods for evidence preservation and/or storage.
- Develop instrumental systems to improve analysis throughput and the reliability, reproducibility, selectivity, and/or sensitivity of current methods used in crime laboratories for forensic analysis.
- Develop tools or methods that can separate the various components of a mixture. The separation method must be successful on typical forensic samples (limited in yield, etc.) and must not reduce the efficiency of downstream forensic methods.
- Develop improved tools for examining aged, degraded, limited, damaged, inhibited, or otherwise compromised physical evidence.
- Develop novel approaches to forensic science methods for analysis and interpretation. Examples include streamlined, portable, high-throughput, more informative, more sensitive, less susceptible to inhibition, and other novel methods for analysis of forensic evidence for criminal justice purposes.
- Develop novel approaches and/or enhance current approaches to interpret forensic data derived from physical evidence, including an assessment of the significance of association.
Funding Information
- Anticipated Maximum Dollar Amount of Awards: $9,400,000.00
- Anticipated Total Amount to be Awarded Under Solicitation: $9,400,000.00
- Period of Performance Duration (Months): 60
- Anticipated Number of Awards: 45
- Period of Performance Start Date: 1/1/22 12:00 AM
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligible Applicants: City or township governments, County governments, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Independent school districts, Individuals, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Small businesses, Special district governments, State governments, Other
- For purposes of this solicitation, the term “State” means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virginia Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
- Foreign governments, foreign organizations, and foreign colleges and universities are not eligible to apply. Federal agencies are eligible to apply. (Any award made to a federal agency will be made as an inter-agency reimbursable agreement.)
- To advance Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities, as of October 28, 2020, the Attorney General determined that all state, local, and university or college law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or have started the certification process to be allocated FY 2021 DOJ discretionary grant funding, as either a recipient or a subrecipient.
- All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.
- NIJ will consider applications under which two or more entities would carry out the federal award; however, only one entity may be the applicant. Any others must be proposed as subrecipients (subgrantees).
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=333077