NIJ FY23 Research and Evaluation on Policing Practices, Accountability Mechanisms, and Alternatives | O NIJ 2023 171675

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2023 171675

The NIJ FY23 Research and Evaluation on Policing Practices, Accountability Mechanisms, and Alternatives grant is a discretionary National Institute of Justice funding opportunity under CFDA 16.560 (science and technology and other research and development) that supports rigorous, applied research and evaluation meant to strengthen community safety while advancing civil rights, racial equity, access to justice, support for victims and justice-involved individuals, and public trust in law enforcement. The core intent is to generate practical evidence that can inform real policy and operational decisions in policing, especially around accountability, public transparency, and improved police-community relationships. Projects are expected to be methodologically strong and focused on measurable outcomes, not just descriptive work.

NIJ is specifically soliciting research that examines how four major areas affect policing performance and community outcomes: (1) police accountability practices, (2) the shifting and sharing of police functions (often understood as alternatives or complements to traditional police responses, such as co-responder models or non-police crisis response), (3) police training, and (4) police officer health and wellness programs. The solicitation highlights a broad set of potential outcomes that studies may measure, including officer intervention and reporting of misconduct, rates of excessive or unnecessary use of force, civilian complaints, officer and civilian injuries, levels of accountability and transparency, public trust and confidence in police, and the overall quality of police-community relationships. NIJ encourages applicants to align proposed work with what is already known in NIJ’s policing portfolio and prior NIJ awards in policing and officer safety, health, and wellness, with the goal of building on the existing evidence base rather than reinventing it.

A major emphasis in this opportunity is meaningful engagement with people who have lived experience related to the topic being studied. NIJ signals “special consideration” for proposals that do more than treat community voices as an afterthought, and instead incorporate practitioners, community members, victims, service providers, and people with justice-system involvement into the design, execution, interpretation, and dissemination of the work where appropriate. This can include participatory or community-engaged research approaches, practitioner research partnerships, advisory boards with real decision-making input, and methods that capture lived experience in a credible and ethical way. NIJ also encourages multidisciplinary research teams, reflecting the idea that complex policing problems often require combined strengths across quantitative and qualitative methods, public health, criminology, psychology, sociology, statistics, implementation science, and related fields.

The solicitation also expects applicants to incorporate equity-related measurement and analysis where applicable, including the consideration of diversity, discrimination, and bias across age, gender and gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. In practice, this means NIJ is looking for projects that do not simply report average effects, but that are prepared to examine differential impacts across groups, and to evaluate whether interventions reduce or exacerbate disparities. This focus aligns with the broader Department of Justice priorities around civil rights, racial equity, and increasing access to justice.

For projects involving partnerships with criminal justice agencies or other organizations, the application should include letters of support signed by appropriate decision-making authorities from each partner agency. These letters are not just endorsements; they must explicitly acknowledge NIJ’s data archiving requirement that de-identified data derived from, provided to, or obtained through an NIJ-funded award will be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the project. Applicants and partners are encouraged to review NIJ’s data archiving guidance early, since data access, data use permissions, privacy protections, and de-identification plans can shape study feasibility. If an award is made, the grantee is expected to have a formal agreement with partnering agencies in place by January 1, 2024, and that agreement must include language ensuring the project can meet the NACJD archiving requirements.

NIJ places unusual weight on dissemination and real-world uptake. Applicants are asked to propose robust, creative, multi-pronged dissemination strategies designed to make findings usable and more likely to change policy and practice. This can include partnerships with organizations and associations positioned to influence policing standards, training curricula, union or management practice, accreditation, or local and state policy. NIJ offers “special consideration” to proposals that dedicate at least 15% of requested project funds to these dissemination efforts, and applicants are expected to clearly demonstrate that commitment in both the budget worksheet and the budget narrative. The underlying message is that NIJ is not only funding studies that can be published, but studies that can be translated into actionable guidance, tools, and decision support for agencies and communities.

Administratively, this is a grant (not a cooperative agreement) and it is open to a wide range of eligible applicants, including state, county, and city governments; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (including small businesses); and other unrestricted entities listed in the eligibility section. Where multiple agencies are involved in carrying out the project using federal funds, NIJ requires that only one entity submit the application as the primary applicant, and any additional partners receiving funds must be structured as subrecipients. The applicant organization is expected to conduct the majority of the work proposed, reinforcing NIJ’s expectation that project leadership, management, and substantive contribution remain centered with the lead applicant.

Key opportunity details from the posting include the funding opportunity number O-NIJ-2023-171675, an original closing date of June 6, 2023, and an award ceiling listed at $9,000,000. The opportunity was created on March 20, 2023, and is administered by the National Institute of Justice under the Office of Justice Programs. Overall, the solicitation is designed to fund high-quality, applied evaluations and research that can credibly answer what works, for whom, and under what conditions, across accountability systems, alternative response models, training approaches, and officer wellness strategies, while ensuring strong community engagement, attention to equity, responsible data stewardship, and dissemination that actually reaches the people who set policy and run day-to-day policing practice.

• The National Institute of Justice in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIJ FY23 Research and Evaluation on Policing Practices, Accountability Mechanisms, and Alternatives" 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 2023-03-20.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-06-06. (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 $9,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, 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, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Unrestricted.

Apply for O NIJ 2023 171675

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