The Program Narrative includes an abstract, table of contents, main body, and appendixes. Each notice of funding opportunity defines the page limit for the program narrative. The page limit does not include the bibliography/references or appendixes, list of key personnel, resumes of key personnel, list of previous and current NIJ awards and products, charts, tables, or other necessary appendixes (such as letters of cooperation from collaborating organizations). You may include additional substantive material in a technical appendix but are advised that reviewers may not read beyond the page limit. All parts of the Program Narrative should be converted to one file for uploading. Please reference the specific notice of funding opportunity for details for more detail on what is required.
Yes. NIJ uses abstracts for several purposes, including assigning proposals to an independent peer review panel. The abstract becomes public if the proposal receives an award. The abstract should serve as a succinct, stand-alone, and accurate description of the proposed work and should not exceed 600 words. See the NIJ Project Abstract template (pdf, 3 pages) for instructions on what should be included in the abstract.
No.
NOTE: Generally for social science research and evaluation projects, NIJ-funded projects tend to range from 1 to 3 years with all funds awarded at once.
NIJ provides objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to improve criminal justice policy and practice. NIJ accomplishes this mission chiefly through competitively awarded grants, cooperative agreements and contracts. NIJ must be assured of an awardees' ability to identify and to effectively manage the factors that could affect the objectivity and independence of their work.
Research independence and integrity pertains only to ensuring that the design, conduct or reporting of research funded by NIJ grants, cooperative agreements or contracts will not be biased by any financial interest on the part of the investigators responsible for the research or on the part of the applicant. We strongly encourage applicants to review each notice of funding opportunity document for specific requirements.
The application must explain the process and procedures that are the applicant has put in place to identify and manage potential financial conflicts of interest on the part of its staff, consultants and/or sub-grantees and sub-contractors. The application must also identify any potential organizational financial conflicts of interest on the part of the applicant with regard to the proposed research. If the applicant believes that there are no potential organizational financial conflicts of interest, the applicant must provide a brief narrative explanation of why it believes that to be the case.
Where potential organizational financial conflicts of interest exist, the application must identify the safeguards the applicant has put in place to address those conflicts of interest.
A thorough discussion of process and procedures related to identifying and managing potential financial conflicts of interest on the part of researchers can be found on the National Institutes of Health's Conflicts of Interest Web page. Though this information solely reflects the policies of the National Institutes of Health, the guidance offered may be helpful to NIJ applicants. It is offered purely as an example of best practices.
NIJ considers those aspects of project design given special consideration to be reflections of best scientific practice and or critical to implementation of the findings resulting from a research project. NIJ will take those aspects of an applicant’s project design into consideration when weighting the totality of the independent peer review panel’s assessment of an application for award.
Application proposals are expected to stand on their own merits, within the guidance provided by the notice of funding opportunity. Applications containing hyperlinks will be advanced to peer review. However, as is the case with applications where the proposal narrative fails to comply with the format requirements specified in the notice of funding opportunity, NIJ may consider that in peer review and in final award decisions.