Research on Juvenile Justice Topics, Fiscal Year 2021 | O NIJ 2021 40003

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2021 40003

The Department of Justice, through the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and in partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), offered this discretionary grant opportunity to fund rigorous, policy-relevant research in juvenile justice. The central goal is to generate solid evidence that can directly inform real-world decision-making, including how agencies respond to emerging challenges and how systems can improve outcomes for youth.

The solicitation is narrowly focused on two priority research areas, and proposals had to fit squarely within one of them to be considered. The first area is juvenile justice responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, which could include studying how courts, detention facilities, community supervision, service providers, and related agencies adapted operations, protected health and safety, and managed youth needs under pandemic constraints. The second area is the deinstitutionalization of status offenders, meaning research on policies and practices that reduce or eliminate placing youth in detention or confinement for conduct that would not be a crime if committed by an adult (for example, truancy or running away), and the effects of shifting toward community-based alternatives. Any application proposing research outside these two topics was explicitly ineligible.

A major emphasis of the opportunity is on strong partnerships when the proposed work depends on collaboration with justice or other government agencies. Applications involving agency partnerships were expected to include a strong letter of support signed by an appropriate decision-making authority at each partner agency. These letters needed to do more than express general enthusiasm: they had to acknowledge, up front, that de-identified data produced, provided, or obtained through the project would be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the award. Applicants and partners were encouraged to review NACJD policies and protections in advance so expectations around privacy, security, and public use files were understood early. If selected, awardees were expected to have formal written agreements with partners in place by January 1, 2022, and those agreements had to include provisions that support the required data archiving.

The grant was listed under Funding Opportunity Number O-NIJ-2021-40003 and CFDA 16.560, within the Law, Justice and Legal Services funding activity category. It allowed a wide range of eligible applicants, including state, county, and local governments; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; special district governments; public housing authorities; nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations (other than universities); for-profit entities (including small businesses); and other applicants as described in the eligibility clarification text. The key structural rule for multi-entity projects was that only one organization could apply as the primary applicant; any additional funded partners needed to be included as subrecipients rather than co-applicants.

In terms of scale and timing, the opportunity was created on December 11, 2020, with an original application deadline of February 26, 2021. The maximum award amount (ceiling) was $2,000,000, and NIJ expected to make about five awards. Overall, the opportunity reflects NIJ and OJJDP priorities around producing credible evidence on urgent system responses to COVID-19 and on reducing institutional placement of status offenders, while also reinforcing strong data stewardship through mandatory archiving of de-identified datasets with NACJD.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research on Juvenile Justice Topics, Fiscal Year 2021" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 11, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 26, 2021. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $2,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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