Grants / Department of Justice / National Institute of Justice

O-NIJ-2022-171186: NIJ FY22 Research and Development in Forensic Science for Criminal Justice Purposes

Closed Closed May 2, 2022 Opportunity O-NIJ-2022-171186 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: NIJ FY 2026 Research and Evaluation on Violent Crime: Gangs and Organized Criminal Groups (Domestic and Transnational) (O-NIJ-2026-172806). Status: Closes November 30, 2026 (23 days left). It is in our archive of National Institute of Justice notices from 2022.

• Award ceiling$12.0 million
• Total funding$12.0 million
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeGrant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses and individuals.

For 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. 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, 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 eligible for FY 2022 DOJ discretionary grant funding. To become certified, the law enforcement agency must meet two mandatory conditions: (1) the agency’s use-of-force policies adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and (2) the agency’s use-of-force policies prohibit chokeholds except in situations where use of deadly force is allowed by law. The certification requirement also applies to law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ discretionary grant funding through a subaward. For detailed information on this certification requirement, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/SafePolicingEO to access the Standards for Certification on Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Implementation Fact Sheet, and the List of Designated Independent Credentialing Bodies. All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.

More grants for nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses, individuals.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past National Institute of Justice Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants awards averaged $596,032; this notice allows up to $12.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (45% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

OJP is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and racial equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety and protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community. 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: 1. Increase the body of knowledge to guide and inform forensic science policy and practice; or 2. Lead to the production of useful material(s), device(s), system(s), or method(s) that have the potential for forensic application. The intent of this program is to direct the findings of basic scientific research; foster research and development in broader scientific fields applicable to forensic science; and support ongoing forensic science research toward the development of highly-discriminating, accurate, reliable, cost-effective, and rapid methods for the identification, analysis, and interpretation of forensic evidence for criminal justice purposes. Projects should address the challenges and needs of the forensic science community, including but not limited to, the operational needs discussed at NIJ's FY 2020 Forensic Science Technology Working Group (TWG) meeting, which may be found on NIJ.OJP.gov. Additional research needs of the forensic science community can be found at the Organization of Scientific Area Committees website. Although the goals and deliverables of proposed projects are not required to result in immediate solutions to the posted challenges and needs, proposals should, at a minimum, address the foundational work that will lead to eventual solutions. Applications proposing research involving partnerships with criminal justice or other agencies should include a strong letter of support, signed by an appropriate decision-making authority from each proposed, partnering agency. A letter of support should include the partnering agency's acknowledgement that de-identified data derived from, provided to, or obtained through this project will be archived by the grant recipient in accordance with their data archiving plan (see Data Archiving Plan under "Application and Submission Information").

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, O-NIJ-2026-172806, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.