NIJ sponsors fellowship programs to strengthen and broaden the pool of researchers looking at the issues of crime and justice by:
- Providing talented researchers — who hold a terminal degree in any academic discipline and are early in their career — with an opportunity to elevate their independently generated research and ideas to the level of national discussion.
- Encouraging promising doctoral students in the application of critical and innovative thinking on pressing criminal justice problems.
- Fostering the professional development of criminal justice researchers and professionals by providing them with an opportunity to work on research addressing criminal justice issues relevant to the work of NIJ and public policy.
- Encouraging students from any academic discipline to propose original research that has direct implications for criminal justice in the United States.
Descriptions of Our Fellowship and Scholar Programs
Graduate Research Fellowship
For more than 40 years, our Graduate Research Fellowship program has supported doctoral students whose research is relevant to criminal justice. In recent years, NIJ had emphasized two GRF tracks – one to support researchers in the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) and one to support researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. In 2020, NIJ merged those tracks and invites all applicants, regardless of degree program, to apply to the same GRF funding opportunity. Learn more about the Graduate Research Fellowship program, including how to apply, and learn about past fellows.
NIJ's Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Scholars Programs
The National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Scholars Program strengthens the research capabilities of law enforcement professionals and agencies. Reflecting NIJ’s commitment to improving police policy and practice through scientific evidence, the LEADS Scholars Program develops and empowers the next generation of American law enforcement leaders to conduct and apply research. Learn more about the LEADS program.
Public Laboratory Research Fellowships
As part of our “Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories” program, we encourage applicant laboratories to consider funding a postgraduate (master’s or doctorate) fellowship as part of their proposal.