NIJ National Center on Forensics, Fiscal Year 2020

Yes. With this solicitation, NIJ seeks proposals from qualified applicants to establish and operate the NIJ National Center on Forensics to facilitate a partnership amongst:

• A full-service State department of forensic science with a medical examiner function;
• An accredited university of higher education with affiliate medical and law schools;
• AND a statewide district attorneys association.

There is no conditional criteria directly attributed to the medical school component which would exclude it from being utilized in an application to this solicitation.  However, it is advisable that applicants carefully review the “Capabilities and Competencies” section (page 15) of the solicitation, since peer reviewers will be scoring proposals in this area.  The solicitation states that …”Applications proposing programs involving partnerships with other agencies or organizations, such as publicly funded forensic laboratories or institutions of higher learning, must include a strong letter of cooperation/support or administrative agreement, signed by an appropriate decision-making authority from each proposed, partnering agency. If selected for award, grantees will be expected to have a formal agreement in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2021.” (Page 11)

Please carefully review the solicitation document in its entirety before submitting a proposal.

As States they are two “entities” under the Eligibility section, and the Solicitation permits two entities working on the same award with the understanding that only one can be the actual recipient.

Q: Since state structures and agencies differ, must the "Forensic Laboratory" and "Medical Examiner Office" be under one agency umbrella in the state, or can these functions be under different agencies, both with state-wide jurisdiction, in cooperation and agreement with the applicant?

Any entity who meets the requirements in the eligibility section is qualified to apply.

There is no conditional criteria directly attributed to the medical school component which would exclude it from being utilized in an application to this solicitation.  However, it is advisable that applicants carefully review the “Capabilities and Competencies” section (Page 15) of the solicitation, since peer reviewers will be scoring proposals in this area.  The solicitation states that …”Applications proposing programs involving partnerships with other agencies or organizations, such as publicly funded forensic laboratories or institutions of higher learning, must include a strong letter of cooperation/support or administrative agreement, signed by an appropriate decision-making authority from each proposed, partnering agency. If selected for award, grantees will be expected to have a formal agreement in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2021.” (Page 11)

Please carefully review the solicitation document in its entirety before submitting a proposal.

Any entity who meets the requirements in the eligibility section is qualified to apply.