Research and Evaluation on School Safety, Fiscal Year 2020 | NIJ 2020 17308

Opportunity Information: Apply for NIJ 2020 17308

The Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) offered this discretionary grant opportunity, titled "Research and Evaluation on School Safety, Fiscal Year 2020" (Funding Opportunity Number NIJ 2020 17308), to support rigorous research aimed at improving safety in K-12 school settings. The central purpose of the solicitation was twofold: first, to fund studies that dig into the root causes of school violence, and second, to evaluate how well certain federally funded school safety initiatives are working in practice. In particular, NIJ targeted evaluations of projects supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) or the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) under the STOP School Violence Act, signaling a focus on evidence-building around real-world interventions already being implemented with federal support.

Funding was offered through a cooperative agreement, which typically indicates a closer working relationship between the award recipient and the federal agency than a standard grant. That structure is often used when the agency expects to be substantially involved in shaping, monitoring, or coordinating aspects of the research and evaluation work, such as refining study design expectations, ensuring consistent methodological standards, or facilitating access to program sites and administrative data connected to STOP School Violence Act initiatives. The activity categories listed for the solicitation reflected that blend of applied criminal justice policy and research: law, justice, and legal services alongside science and technology and other research and development.

NIJ anticipated that at least $2,000,000 would be available to support the solicitation, with the possibility of additional funding coming from BJA. The award ceiling was set at $2,000,000, and NIJ expected to make about two awards, suggesting a relatively competitive process with an emphasis on a small number of sizable, high-impact projects rather than many smaller ones. The solicitation was posted on February 3, 2020, with an original application deadline of April 13, 2020, placing it on a typical federal research grant timeline of roughly two months from announcement to closing.

Eligibility was broad and included many categories of potential applicants that are commonly positioned to conduct school safety research or evaluations at scale. Eligible applicants included state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; nonprofit organizations (both those with 501(c)(3) status and those without, other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; and other applicants as described in the solicitation's additional eligibility language. This wide eligibility pool suggests NIJ intended to attract proposals from academic research teams, research and evaluation firms, nonprofit research organizations, and governmental entities that have direct operational ties to school safety programming and access to relevant data.

Overall, the opportunity was designed to strengthen the evidence base on what drives school violence and what actually reduces it, using research and evaluation tied closely to STOP School Violence Act funded efforts. By prioritizing both root-cause research and program effectiveness evaluation, NIJ positioned the solicitation to generate findings that could inform policy decisions, guide implementation improvements for school safety initiatives, and help federal, state, and local partners invest in approaches with demonstrated results.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the law, justice and legal services, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research and Evaluation on School Safety, Fiscal Year 2020" 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 Feb 03, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Apr 13, 2020. (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 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have 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, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for NIJ 2020 17308

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