NIJ FY22 Research and Evaluation on Policing

OJP is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights and racial equity, increases access to justice, supports crime victims and individuals impacted by the justice system, strengthens community safety and protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community. With this solicitation, NIJ seeks proposals for rigorous research and evaluation projects in four topic areas. This includes projects that address (1) diversifying responses to public safety needs; (2) implementation and sustainment of long-term organizational change in policing agencies; and (3) police recruitment, retention, and training in today's environment. NIJ also seeks investigator-initiated research and evaluation projects on contemporary policing in the U.S. on topics outside of the three topic areas listed above, which will contribute to a better understanding of the changes occurring in American policing and the impact on policy and practice. Successful applicants should propose the most rigorous design to answer their proposed research questions. NIJ will consider research designs that include qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods designs. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental designs are preferred, in that order, but NIJ understands that not all research questions lend themselves to such designs. Applicants are encouraged to partner with practitioner agencies where such partnerships will enhance the research. Applications proposing research involving partnerships with criminal justice or other agencies, should include a strong 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 this project 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 the NACJD's policies and protections at (NACJD). If selected for award, grantees will be expected to have a formal agreement in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2023. That formal agreement must include a provision to meet the data archiving requirements of the award. 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.