NIJ FY23 Research on Juvenile Justice Topics | O NIJ 2023 171662

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2023 171662

The NIJ FY23 Research on Juvenile Justice Topics opportunity is a discretionary federal research grant from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), run in collaboration with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). It is designed to fund rigorous research and evaluation that can directly inform juvenile justice policy and practice, while aligning with broader Department of Justice priorities around civil rights, racial equity, access to justice, support for victims and justice-impacted individuals, community safety, and building trust between law enforcement and communities. The solicitation is tightly focused: in FY 2023, NIJ will only consider applications that fall within one of three specified topic categories, and any proposal outside those lanes will not be reviewed.

The first category centers on research and evaluation of legislative and administrative policy changes affecting youth involved in the justice system. Proposals submitted under this category must address at least one of three specific issues: (1) community-based alternatives to youth incarceration, especially for very high need or high risk youth who historically would have been held in secure confinement; (2) sealing and expungement of juvenile justice records; and/or (3) strategies and policy reforms aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice system involvement and outcomes. The intent here is to generate credible evidence about how policy shifts are implemented, what impacts they have on youth and communities, and what practices can be scaled or improved.

The second category targets youth who touch both the juvenile justice and child welfare systems (often called dual system or crossover youth). NIJ is looking for research that assesses data capacity and service delivery across these systems. In practice, this means examining whether agencies can effectively identify dual system youth, share and link data responsibly, coordinate case planning, and deliver services in a way that is timely, equitable, and responsive to youth needs. Studies in this area can help jurisdictions understand gaps in infrastructure, barriers to collaboration, and promising models for integrated service delivery.

The third category focuses on analysis of the valid court order (VCO) exception. This is a narrow but important issue in juvenile justice policy, generally connected to circumstances where a court order can lead to detention even when the underlying behavior may be categorized as a status offense. NIJ is seeking careful analysis of how the VCO exception is used, the contexts in which it is applied, and what its implications are for youth outcomes, system decision-making, and equity.

Across all categories, NIJ emphasizes research quality and real-world relevance, and it signals a strong preference for projects that meaningfully engage people with lived experience related to the topic being studied. That can include justice practitioners, community members, service providers, victims, and individuals who have experienced juvenile justice system involvement. NIJ also encourages multidisciplinary research teams, reflecting an interest in combining complementary methods and expertise (for example, pairing rigorous quantitative impact analysis with qualitative fieldwork on implementation and stakeholder experiences). Proposals are also expected to consider and measure issues tied to diversity, discrimination, and bias, where applicable, across characteristics such as age, gender and gender identity, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.

Operationally, applicants can submit to more than one category, but each proposal must be submitted as a separate application, and the chosen category must be clearly identified on the title page of the Proposal Narrative. For projects involving partnerships with juvenile justice, criminal justice, child welfare, or other agencies, the application should include letters of support signed by appropriate decision-making authorities. Those letters are expected to acknowledge NIJ data archiving requirements: de-identified data derived from or obtained through the NIJ-funded award must be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the project. If funded, grantees must have formal agreements in place with partner agencies by January 1, 2024, and those agreements must include provisions to meet the data archiving obligations.

NIJ also places unusual weight on dissemination, pushing applicants to plan for research findings to move beyond academic publication and into actual policy and practice change. It asks for robust, creative, multi-pronged dissemination strategies, ideally built around partnerships with organizations and associations positioned to translate evidence into guidance, training, standards, or legislative and administrative action. The solicitation notes that special consideration will be given to proposals that dedicate at least 15 percent of the requested project budget to implementing these dissemination strategies, and applicants are expected to document this clearly in the budget materials.

From an eligibility and award structure standpoint, the program is open to a wide range of applicant types, including state, county, and local governments; public and private higher education institutions; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; nonprofits (with or without 501(c)(3) status); public housing authorities; and for-profit entities including small businesses. The funding instrument is a grant under CFDA 16.560. The listed maximum award amount (ceiling) is $5,500,000. When projects involve multiple agencies using federal funds, only one organization can apply as the primary applicant, and other partners must be included as subrecipients. NIJ also states that the applicant organization is expected to complete the majority of the work. The opportunity number is O-NIJ-2023-171662, it was created March 13, 2023, and the original closing date was May 29, 2023.

• The National Institute of Justice in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIJ FY23 Research on Juvenile Justice Topics" 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 2023-03-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2023-05-29. (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 $5,500,000.00 in funding.
• 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, 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, Small businesses, Unrestricted.

Apply for O NIJ 2023 171662

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