Post-Award Requirements for Research, Development, and Evaluation Grants

All award recipients must submit quarterly financial reports. See the DOJ Financial Guide for details.

If an application proposes research (including research and development) and/or evaluation, the applicant must demonstrate research/evaluation independence and integrity, including appropriate safeguards, before it may receive award funds. The applicant must demonstrate independence and integrity regarding both the research and/or evaluation project proposed in response to the notice of funding opportunity, and any current or prior related projects.

All research, development, and evaluation projects must submit periodic and final performance reports in the RPPR format. Most awards require semi-annual reporting. See Research Performance Progress Report Guidelines for NIJ Awardees for guidance. Performance reports that do not conform to this format will not be accepted.

NIJ expects award recipients to generate scholarly products, such as peer-reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents, and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, awardees are required to submit a Final Research Report on, or before, the last day of the grant project period.

The Final Research Report should be a double-spaced manuscript that is well-developed, concise, and suitable for publication. Award recipients should expect that all or part of the final report will be made available to the public.

While there is no specific page limit, award recipients are strongly encouraged to produce succinct Final Research Reports with the expectation that overly long reports may be returned. Final Research Reports should be written in a manner that makes the content accessible to a broad audience which includes practitioners, policymakers, and other researchers.

The Final Research Report should include the following sections, which largely align to the RPPR format, but should be cumulative and prepared with public dissemination in mind.[1]

• Cover Page with:
  • Federal award number (as it appears on the award document)
  • Project title (as it appears on the award document)
  • Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI)
    • Name
    • Title
  • Contact information (e-mail, address, and phone)
  • Award recipient organization (name and address)
  • Project period (as it appears on the award document)
  • Award amount (as it appears on the award document)
• Summary of the project
  • Major goals and objectives
  • Research questions
  • Research design, methods, analytical and data analysis techniques
  • Expected applicability of the research
• Participants and other collaborating organizations
• Changes in approach from original design and reason for change, if applicable
• Outcomes
  • Activities/accomplishments
  • Results and findings
  • Limitations
• Artifacts
  • List of products (e.g., publications, conference papers, technologies, websites, databases), including locations of these products on the Internet or in other archives or databases
  • Data sets generated (broad descriptions will suffice)
  • Dissemination activities

Recipients of grants issued prior to 2017 are expected to generate scholarly products, such as peer reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, grantees are required to submit a Final Summary Overview. This Overview will summarize the research project and include sections that state the purpose, project subjects (if applicable), project design and methods, data analysis, findings, and implications for criminal justice policy and practice in the United States. The Draft Summary Overview should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages and should be submitted 90 days prior to the project’s end date. The Final Summary Overview is due at the end of the grant project period. Grant recipients should consult their award agreement or contact their assigned grant manager for further information regarding these delivery requirements.

NIJ funding supports evaluability assessments (EAs). An EA is a systematic process used to determine if a program or project is ready for an evaluation; if modifications are required to increase readiness; and if an evaluation is justified and likely to provide useful information.  At the conclusion of an EA, NIJ makes documentation resulting from EAs public. This documentation would include site reports and final technical reports. The awardee must ensure that all parties participating in EAs are in agreement with the public dissemination plan before work begins.

Scholarly products (e.g., journal articles, software, databases, patents) are expected to be the primary outcomes of NIJ awards. Forensic science R&D awardees must also submit a Technical Summary of the project as an Award Deliverable in JustGrants by the last day of the project period.[3, 4] This document should be concise, written for a general audience to include researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, and prepared with the expectation of public posting at NCJRS.

For awardees funded under the Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories program, the Technical Summary should include written documentation of methods, standard operating procedures and validation summary as appropriate. 

The Technical Summary should include:

• COVER PAGE:
  • Project title
  • Award recipient organization
  • Principal Investigator
  • NIJ award number
  • Project period
  • Award amount
• PROJECT SUMMARY:
  • Goals and objectives
  • Research questions
  • Summary of project design and methods
  • Summary of results
  • Applicability to criminal justice
• PRODUCTS:
  • List of all scholarly products (with DOIs or other durable links), including:
    • Peer reviewed publications
    • Book chapters, theses, conference proceedings, etc.
    • Technologies developed (patents, prototypes, etc.)
    • Software, databases, other products
    • Archived research data
  • List of all dissemination activities (with DOIs or other durable links, if available), including:
    • Conference presentations
    • Webinars, workshops
    • General press, podcasts, and other media
• APPENDIX
  Applies only to awardees under the Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories program.
  • Documentation of methods
  • Standard operating procedures
  • Validation summary
• REFERENCES, if applicable

NIJ expects award recipients to generate scholarly products, such as peer-reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents, and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, awardees are required to submit a Final Research Report on, or before, the last day of the grant project period.

The Final Research Report should be a double-spaced manuscript that is well-developed, concise, and suitable for publication. Award recipients should expect that all or part of the final report will be made available to the public.

While there is no specific page limit, award recipients are strongly encouraged to produce succinct Final Research Reports with the expectation that overly long reports may be returned. Final Research Reports should be written in a manner that makes the content accessible to a broad audience which includes practitioners, policymakers, and other researchers.

The Final Research Report should include the following sections, which largely align to the RPPR format, but should be cumulative and prepared with public dissemination in mind.[5]

• Cover Page with:
  • Federal award number (as it appears on the award document)
  • Project title (as it appears on the award document)
  • Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI)
    • Name
    • Title
  • Contact information (e-mail, address, and phone)
  • Award recipient organization (name and address)
  • Project period (as it appears on the award document)
  • Award amount (as it appears on the award document)
• Summary of the project
  • Major goals and objectives
  • Research questions
  • Research design, methods, analytical and data analysis techniques
  • Expected applicability of the research
• Participants and other collaborating organizations
• Changes in approach from original design and reason for change, if applicable
• Outcomes
  • Activities/accomplishments
  • Results and findings
  • Limitations
• Artifacts
  • List of products (e.g., publications, conference papers, technologies, websites, databases), including locations of these products on the Internet or in other archives or databases
  • Data sets generated (broad descriptions will suffice)
  • Dissemination activities

Recipients of grants issued prior to 2017 are expected to generate scholarly products, such as peer reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, grantees are required to submit a Final Summary Overview. This Overview will summarize the research project and include sections that state the purpose, project subjects (if applicable), project design and methods, data analysis, findings, and implications for criminal justice policy and practice in the United States. The Draft Summary Overview should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages, and should be submitted 90 days prior to the project’s end date. The Final Summary Overview is due at the end of the grant project period. Grant recipients should consult their award agreement or contact their assigned grant manager for further information regarding these delivery requirements.