Funding & Awards

• Research, development and evaluation (CFDA 16.560). NIJ funds physical and social science research, development and evaluation projects about criminal justice through competitive notices of funding opportunity. The focus of the notices of funding opportunity varies from year to year based on research priorities and available funding.
• Research fellowships. NIJ strengthens and broadens the pool of researchers looking at criminal justice issues through fostering various fellowship programs which provide opportunities to the researcher community. Learn more about NIJ’s fellowship programs.
• Travel Scholarships. NIJ funds two programs that provide funding for successful applicants to travel to select conferences and events. Learn more about NIJ's travel scholarship programs.

Unsolicited Proposals. Although you may submit unsolicited proposals, you are discouraged from doing so unless you have discussed the concept with NIJ staff and been asked to submit a proposal that does not fit into a specific notice of funding opportunity. Unsolicited proposals may receive either an external peer review or an internal review. If the proposal fits into an already established notice of funding opportunity category, it will be returned with a recommendation to resubmit it under that notice of funding opportunity.

• Forthcoming funding opportunities — typically in the late fall, we begin posting a list of forthcoming notices of funding opportunity to allow potential applicants to learn our areas of interest in the coming funding season.
• Current funding opportunities — list of notices of funding opportunity under which we are accepting applications; typically, most noitces are released December through May (subject to appropriations availability). 
• Expired funding opportunities — a complete list of notices of funding opportunity from past years, dating back to fiscal year 2005. Each notice of funding opportunity title links to a detail page that shows the total number and cumulative amount of the resulting awards and a list of those awards with links to detailed information on each.

Visit NIJ’s page on guidance for applicants and awardees for more information on how to manage an award from application to closeout. Learn about:

• What to do before you apply
• Building your proposal 
  • See sample applications
• Submitting your application
• Application review and award notification processes
• Requirements if your proposal is funded

Because most notices of funding opportunity are competitive, we cannot have individual conversations concerning the notice with prospective applicants. Any questions concerning open notices of funding opportunity should be submitted to the OJP Response Center by phone 1-800-851-3420 (TTY at 301-240-6310 for hearing impaired only) or by email at [email protected].

NIJ awards grants and cooperative agreements for various research, development, and evaluation projects;  and fellowship programs. You may view, search, and filter a list of previously funded projects to better understand what types of projects NIJ funds.

Each listed award includes a link to a detail screen on which you will see details about the award, a description, and a list of products (e.g., publications, reports, peer-reviewed articles) generated by the awardee. 

View the awards list.

NIJ, as part of the Federal Government, is committed to monitoring the operation of its review and award processes to identify and address any inequities based on gender, race, ethnicity, or disability of its proposed project directors, principal investigators, co-project directors, and co-principal investigators. To gather information needed for this important task, applicants may submit the requested information for each identified project director, principal investigator, co-project director, and co-principal investigator. Submission of the requested information is voluntary and is not a precondition of an award. 

How and when to submit -

1. Once you have received your application number, download the form Research & Related Personal Data. To view the file, you may need to upgrade your version of Acrobat Reader. Also, some browser viewers cannot display this type of PDF form. You may need to set your browser to download the form instead of viewing it within the browser.  
2. Read the Instructions.
3. Submit the form via an email attachment to [email protected]. Be sure to include your application number within the body of the email.