NIJ Grant for Tribal-Researcher Capacity Building and Justice System Research

With this solicitation, NIJ seeks applications for funding from two categories: (1) Tribal-researcher capacity-building (TRCB) planning grants and (2) research and evaluation proposals from previous TRCB grantees (i.e., Fiscal Year [FY] 2018, FY 2019, FY 2020, FY 2021) based on the results of the activities funded under the original planning grant.

Applications involving Tribal governments and/or being conducted on Tribal sovereign lands must have an executed Tribal resolution or executive order from the Tribal authorized representative (i.e., Tribal council/government) sanctioning the partnership and the project. Tribal partnerships with program staff of government agencies or programs directed and administered by Tribal governments require approval from the government body. Similarly, applications involving Tribally-based organizations (a non-governmental organization such as a Tribal nonprofit establishment) must have a letter of commitment from the Tribal organization’s authorized legal representative (i.e., administrator, executive director) authorizing the partnership and the project.

NIJ will give special consideration to proposals with methods that include meaningful engagement with the people with lived experience of the subject of study, including, but not limited to, justice practitioners, community members, crime victims, service providers, and individuals who have experienced justice system involvement.

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.

Applications proposing research involving partnerships with criminal justice or other agencies, should include a 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 an award funded by NIJ will be archived by the grant recipient with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the conclusion of the award. Applicants and their potential partners are encouraged to review NIJ’s data archiving guidance. If selected for an award, grantees will be expected to have a formal agreement in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2024. That formal agreement must include a provision to meet the data archiving requirements of the award.

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 related to the subjects of study. Special consideration will be given to proposals that dedicate at least 15% of the requested project award funding toward implementing such strategies, as demonstrated in the Budget Worksheet and Budget Narrative.

In the case of partnerships that will involve the use of federal award funds by multiple partnering agencies to carry out the proposed project, only one entity/partnering agency may be the applicant (as is the case with any application submitted in response to this solicitation); any others must be proposed as subrecipients. The applicant is expected to conduct a majority of the work proposed.