NIJ FY23 Research and Evaluation on School Safety | O NIJ 2023 171616

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2023 171616

The NIJ FY23 Research and Evaluation on School Safety opportunity is a discretionary federal funding program from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), offered as a cooperative agreement (meaning NIJ will likely have substantial involvement during the project). It is framed around the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs (OJP) priorities of advancing civil rights and racial equity, improving access to justice, supporting victims and people affected by the justice system, strengthening public safety, addressing evolving threats, and building trust between law enforcement and communities. The central goal of the solicitation is to fund rigorous research and evaluation that produces practical, credible evidence to guide school safety policy and practice.

The solicitation targets two major research areas. First, it seeks studies that help explain the root causes and consequences of school violence, encouraging applicants to fill specific knowledge gaps about why violence occurs in school settings and what the short- and long-term impacts look like for students, staff, families, and communities. Second, it seeks evaluations of the impact and effectiveness of school safety approaches that are implemented under purposes authorized by the STOP School Violence Act. In other words, NIJ is looking both for foundational research that improves understanding of school violence and for applied evaluation research that tests whether particular strategies intended to improve school safety are actually working, for whom, and under what conditions.

A major emphasis of the program is meaningful engagement with people who have lived experience related to the subject being studied. NIJ signals that proposals will receive special consideration when they incorporate methods that actively involve relevant stakeholders such as justice practitioners, school and community partners, victims, service providers, and individuals with justice system involvement, rather than treating them only as research subjects or end users. The solicitation also encourages multidisciplinary research teams, reflecting a preference for projects that combine complementary expertise and methods (for example, blending criminology, education research, public health, psychology, sociology, data science, and implementation science) to produce findings that are both methodologically strong and operationally useful.

Equity considerations are explicitly built into what NIJ wants to see measured and analyzed. Applicants are encouraged to include the consideration and measurement of diversity, discrimination, and bias across characteristics such as age, gender and gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, when applicable to the research questions and setting. This indicates that NIJ is not only interested in overall effectiveness of school safety approaches, but also whether impacts differ across groups and whether certain practices may produce unequal outcomes or reinforce disparities.

For projects that rely on partnerships with criminal justice agencies or other agencies (including, potentially, school districts or related entities), the application should include letters of support signed by appropriate decision-making authorities from each partnering agency. These letters are expected to do more than generally endorse the project: they must acknowledge that de-identified data generated through the NIJ-funded work (whether derived from, provided to, or obtained through the award) will be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the project. NIJ directs applicants and partners to review its data archiving guidance, and it sets a clear expectation that if an award is made, grantees will have formal agreements in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2024, including a provision that supports meeting the archiving requirements. This underscores that data stewardship, documentation, and public-benefit sharing through archiving are integral to the award, not optional add-ons.

The program also places strong weight on dissemination and real-world impact. NIJ is looking for robust, creative, multi-pronged dissemination plans that go beyond academic publications and are designed to help research findings translate into changes in policies and practices. It encourages strategic partnerships with organizations and associations that are positioned to reach practitioners and decision-makers. Importantly, proposals can receive special consideration if they dedicate at least 15 percent of the requested budget to implementing these dissemination strategies, and applicants are expected to demonstrate this commitment clearly in both the Budget Worksheet and Budget Narrative. The intent is to ensure that funded research does not sit on a shelf, but instead reaches the people and systems that can act on the evidence.

In terms of applicant and partnership structure, a wide range of entities are eligible, including state, county, city/township, special district governments, independent school districts, tribal governments and tribal organizations, public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)), public and private institutions of higher education, and for-profit organizations (including small businesses). However, the solicitation clarifies that when multiple agencies will use federal award funds to carry out the project, only one organization may apply as the primary applicant; all other participating entities must be included as subrecipients. The primary applicant is expected to conduct the majority of the work, which signals NIJ wants clear accountability and a coherent project management structure rather than a loosely coordinated consortium.

Key administrative details from the posting include the opportunity number (O-NIJ-2023-171616), the CFDA number (16.560), the original closing date (May 8, 2023), and an award ceiling listed as $5,900,000. Overall, the solicitation is designed for teams that can execute high-quality, policy-relevant research and evaluation on school safety; build authentic stakeholder engagement into the design; attend to equity and bias; manage data responsibly with required archiving; and invest meaningfully in dissemination so findings can influence real decisions in schools, communities, and justice-related systems.

• 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 School Safety" 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 2023-02-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-05-08. (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 $5,900,000.00 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.

Apply for O NIJ 2023 171616

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