NIJ FY18 Investigator-Initiated Research and Evaluation on Firearms Violence | NIJ 2018 13960

Opportunity Information: Apply for NIJ 2018 13960

The NIJ FY18 Investigator-Initiated Research and Evaluation on Firearms Violence opportunity is a discretionary grant program from the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ). It was released on March 13, 2018, under funding opportunity number NIJ 2018 13960 (CFDA 16.560). The program supports research and evaluation in the areas of law, justice, legal services, and broader science and technology or research and development, with a clear emphasis on generating evidence that can be used in real-world public safety and criminal justice decision-making.

The central purpose of this solicitation is to fund investigator-initiated projects that deepen the understanding of firearms violence and, importantly, identify approaches that could help prevent and deter it. While the topic includes firearms violence broadly, NIJ highlights a special interest in public mass shooting incidents. The solicitation is specifically focused on intentional, interpersonal firearms violence, meaning it is geared toward incidents where one person intentionally uses a firearm to harm others, rather than unintentional shootings or other categories outside interpersonal intent. The overall aim is to strengthen the national knowledge base and produce findings with practical implications, such as informing policy, improving prevention strategies, supporting effective intervention programs, and guiding criminal justice and community safety practices.

Applicants are invited to propose their own research questions and evaluation designs (hence "investigator-initiated"), as long as the work aligns with the solicitation's focus on understanding, preventing, or deterring intentional interpersonal firearms violence. The emphasis on practical implications signals that NIJ is looking for projects that do more than describe the problem; they should ideally yield actionable insights that practitioners, policymakers, law enforcement, community organizations, or other stakeholders could apply to reduce harm and improve safety. Because the solicitation also calls out public mass shootings, projects might include studying incident characteristics, risk factors, prevention opportunities, intervention points, response and deterrence strategies, and evaluations of initiatives intended to reduce such events, so long as the research remains within the broader frame of firearms violence prevention and deterrence.

The eligibility rules are broad, allowing applications from state, county, and city or township governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status (excluding universities in that category); for-profit organizations (including those other than small businesses); small businesses; and even individuals. This range of eligible applicants suggests NIJ intended to attract proposals from academic researchers, research firms, public agencies, nonprofits, and other entities capable of conducting rigorous research or evaluation.

Funding details indicate an award ceiling of $3,000,000 per award, with NIJ expecting to make about 4 awards under this solicitation. The original closing date for applications was May 14, 2018. In practical terms, this means the program was competitive and designed to support a small number of relatively substantial projects, likely involving multi-site research, complex data collection or analysis, or robust evaluations capable of producing credible, policy-relevant findings.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the law, justice and legal services, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIJ FY18 Investigator-Initiated Research and Evaluation on Firearms Violence" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 13, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 14, 2018. (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 $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, 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, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for NIJ 2018 13960

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