Research and Evaluation on the Administration of Justice, Fiscal Year 2021 | O NIJ 2021 60004

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2021 60004

The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), offered this FY 2021 discretionary grant opportunity to fund rigorous research and evaluation focused on how pretrial strategies affect both the administration of justice and public safety. NIJ framed the program around its authority to support multi-year or short-term research and development across criminal and civil justice systems, and it specifically encouraged studies that can credibly measure impacts, explain mechanisms, and generate practical evidence that courts and justice agencies can use.

The solicitation targeted five main pretrial topic areas: healthcare for people held in pretrial detention, data-driven interventions used to guide pretrial decision-making, the role and impact of prosecutorial discretion in pretrial outcomes, the effects of decriminalizing certain offenses on court processing and public safety, and bail reform. In practice, applicants were expected to propose strong research designs (for example, well-executed quasi-experimental or experimental approaches where feasible) that can connect policy or practice changes to outcomes such as detention decisions, court appearance rates, case processing time, failure-to-appear, pretrial misconduct, recidivism, inequities across groups, system costs, and broader community safety indicators.

A major emphasis of the opportunity was on partnerships with justice agencies and other relevant organizations. Projects that relied on collaboration were expected to include strong letters of support from each partnering agency, signed by an appropriate decision-making authority. These letters were not meant to be generic; they needed to demonstrate real commitment to participation and data access, and they had to explicitly acknowledge a key condition of funding: any de-identified data created, used, or obtained through the project must be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the award. NIJ also directed applicants and partners to review NACJD policies and protections in advance so that data sharing and confidentiality expectations were understood early.

If selected for funding, awardees were expected to have formal agreements in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2022. Those agreements needed to include clear provisions ensuring the project would meet the required NACJD data archiving obligations. The solicitation also clarified how multi-agency collaborations should be structured financially: only one entity could apply as the primary applicant, while other participating agencies that would receive and spend federal funds to carry out the work had to be included as subrecipients rather than co-applicants.

The opportunity was open to a wide range of eligible applicants, including state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; independent school districts; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofit organizations (including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) entities); for-profit organizations (other than small businesses); small businesses; and other entities as described in the full eligibility guidance. This breadth reflects NIJ's interest in supporting strong research teams wherever they are found, including partnerships that combine academic expertise with operational knowledge from justice agencies.

From a funding and timing standpoint, this was a grant (not a contract) categorized under science and technology and other research and development, with CFDA number 16.560. The funding opportunity number was O-NIJ-2021-60004. It was created on January 12, 2021, with an original closing date of March 29, 2021. NIJ anticipated making about six awards, with an award ceiling of $3,000,000 per award, signaling that NIJ expected sizeable, well-resourced projects capable of producing high-quality evidence and deliverables.

Strategically, NIJ linked the solicitation to DOJ Strategic Objective 3.1, which focuses on combating violent crime, promoting safe communities, and upholding victims' rights. It also aligned the work with the NIJ Courts Strategic Research Plan 2020-2024, specifically Objective III.B, which prioritizes research on how court strategies influence the administration of justice and public safety. In other words, the program was meant to generate actionable, credible findings on pretrial policy choices and their real-world consequences, while also building a reusable evidence base through required data archiving at NACJD.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research and Evaluation on the Administration of Justice, Fiscal Year 2021" 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 Jan 12, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 29, 2021. (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 6 candidate(s).
• 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, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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