Supports doctoral students (via their universities) whose dissertation research advances NIJ's mission. Forensic science research is an eligible and frequently funded topic area.
Apply on grants.gov. The applicant is the university, on behalf of an enrolled doctoral student who becomes the fellow; labs and agencies are not applicants.
Official program pageUniversities applying on behalf of enrolled doctoral students. The institution is the applicant; the graduate student is the fellow. Must align with NIJ priority areas.
FY2025: 117 applications received, no awards made yet.
Awards per year: FY2023 24 · FY2024 20 · FY2025 none yet
Round totals: DOJ Office of Justice Programs award data. Award lists: USAspending.gov, plus DOJ’s own award list for rounds USAspending is missing. The award list covers only awards whose descriptions mention forensic work.
General advice for this program, not taken from the notice. The notice’s own review criteria are what reviewers actually score, so check these against it.
Explicitly map your proposed forensic research to NIJ's current funding priorities, such as DNA mixture interpretation, digital evidence analysis, or reducing case backlogs, citing specific NIJ strategic plan language in your proposal narrative.
Partner with a faculty advisor who has a documented publication record in forensic science and prior NIJ or federal grant experience, as reviewer panels heavily weight the mentor's ability to guide the fellow to completion and impact.
Do not submit proposals with broad or theoretical research designs lacking specific sample sizes, laboratory protocols, or validation benchmarks, as NIJ reviewers penalize unclear scientific rigor in forensic fellowship applications.
Avoid framing your research solely as an academic exercise without articulating how findings will translate to actionable improvements for crime laboratories or law enforcement agencies, which is a common reason for low scores.
A starting list, not the official one. Each notice ends with its own application checklist, and that is the list to work from once a round opens.
