Research and Evaluation of Trafficking in Persons, Fiscal Year 2021 | O NIJ 2021 45007

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2021 45007

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), within the U.S. Department of Justice, offered the Fiscal Year 2021 grant opportunity titled "Research and Evaluation of Trafficking in Persons" (Opportunity Number O-NIJ-2021-45007) to expand the federal evidence base on trafficking in persons in the United States. The central expectation is that proposed studies are not purely academic, but are designed to produce findings that clearly inform U.S. criminal justice policy and day-to-day practice, including prevention, investigation, prosecution, and victim-centered responses. NIJ framed the solicitation as a continuation of its ongoing research and evaluation portfolio, emphasizing practical implications and actionable knowledge.

NIJ limited eligible projects to three specific priority areas and stated it would not consider proposals outside them. The first priority area is demand reduction research, which generally focuses on understanding and reducing the market forces that sustain trafficking, such as purchaser behavior, deterrence strategies, enforcement approaches targeting buyers and facilitators, and interventions intended to shrink demand. The second is broader human trafficking research, evaluation, and development, which can include rigorous evaluations of programs, policies, tools, or practices, as well as development of improved methods for identifying trafficking, measuring prevalence, strengthening investigations, enhancing cross-system coordination, and improving outcomes for survivors. The third priority area is research on sex trafficking of American Indian and Alaska Native girls and women, reflecting a targeted focus on addressing trafficking dynamics affecting these communities and producing evidence that can support culturally informed and jurisdictionally appropriate criminal justice responses.

A notable feature of the solicitation is its strong emphasis on partnerships and data stewardship. Applicants proposing work that involves collaboration with criminal justice agencies or other organizations were expected to provide strong letters of support from each partner. These letters had to be signed by an appropriate decision-making authority and needed to explicitly acknowledge a key award condition: de-identified data derived from, provided to, or obtained through the project must be archived with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the award. NIJ encouraged applicants and partners to review NACJD policies and protections in advance so that data sharing, confidentiality, and archiving expectations were understood early and incorporated into project planning.

The solicitation also set a concrete timeline for formalizing partnerships. If selected for funding, recipients were expected to have formal agreements in place with partnering agencies by January 1, 2022. Those agreements needed to include provisions that ensure compliance with the NACJD data archiving requirement, signaling that NIJ considered formal, documented cooperation and end-of-project data preservation to be integral parts of the research infrastructure, not optional add-ons.

Administratively, this was a discretionary grant under the science and technology and other research and development activity category (CFDA 16.560). The opportunity was posted on December 22, 2020, and closed on February 22, 2021. NIJ anticipated making about five awards, with an award ceiling of $3,000,000 per award. Eligibility was broad and included state, county, and local governments; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; public housing authorities; for-profit organizations (other than small businesses) and small businesses; and other applicants as described in the full eligibility language. Overall, the program was structured to fund a small number of relatively large, policy-relevant studies that can strengthen criminal justice decision-making and leave behind a usable, de-identified data asset for future research through NACJD.

• The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Research and Evaluation of Trafficking in Persons, 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 22, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Feb 22, 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 $3,000,000.00 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, 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, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O NIJ 2021 45007

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