The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) opened this competitive federal research and evaluation grant on October 22, 2026, under opportunity O-NIJ-2026-172805. It supports research collaborations with law enforcement agencies to evaluate the operational deployment, effectiveness, policies and sustainability of drones as first responders (DFR) programs. This is financial assistance to qualifying applicants for research and implementation/evaluation projects, not a government procurement solicitation for drone vendors.
Funding and application deadlines
NIJ anticipates $3,500,000 in total program funding and approximately five or six awards. No standard individual award amount or range is fixed in the NOFO: NIJ will determine each award based on the proposed research, potentially up to the program’s total available amount; the $3.5 million program pool is not a guaranteed amount for any one applicant. No applicant cost match is required. Performance may run up to 36 months, with awards anticipated to start February 1, 2027.
The application is mandatory two-step submission: file the SF-424 on Grants.gov by November 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern; then submit the full application in DOJ JustGrants by December 7, 2026, at 8:59 p.m. Eastern. Begin SAM.gov registration/renewal as soon as possible and no later than November 16, 2026. The December 7 JustGrants deadline does not replace the November 30 Grants.gov deadline.
Eligible organizations and partnership requirement
The NOFO permits eligible U.S. state, county, city/township and special-district governments; federally and non-federally recognized tribal governments; other units of local government; public and Indian housing authorities; independent school districts; public/private universities; nonprofit organizations with or without 501(c)(3) status; and for-profit organizations including small businesses. Non-U.S. organizations cannot receive the awards. NIJ expects law-enforcement and research-entity collaboration. Where multiple project partners participate, one eligible legal entity is the applicant and others may be subrecipients. Different genuine projects may be submitted separately.
Activities and restrictions
NIJ seeks rigorous evaluation of law-enforcement DFR use cases including existing operational programs, demonstration pilots, policy and technology approaches, staffing and training, regulatory/compliance frameworks, public engagement, deployment and sustainability. Evaluations must include cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses. The NOFO explicitly permits appropriate DFR technology acquisition and deployment as part of a supported evaluation; participating law-enforcement agencies may retain grant-funded equipment after study completion under applicable award terms. These allowable research purchases do not convert the NIJ grant into a procurement notice. Budgeted costs must be reasonable, allocable and necessary and comply with the detailed NOFO restrictions, applicable federal civil-rights and grant rules, and any conditional requirements.
How to apply
Prepare an eligible research collaboration and evaluation design, required grant budget, project work plan and timeline, supporting research-team documentation, and required assurances. Submit the SF-424 in Grants.gov and the final JustGrants application with the project narrative (maximum 30 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, one-inch margins), required investigator biographical sketches and current/pending support forms, and other applicable research, partnership, privacy, human-subjects and data-management materials. NIJ anticipates scientific publications, practitioner dissemination products, data archiving, and progress reports from awardees.
Official documents: NIJ competition announcement; controlling 14-page NIJ NOFO (PDF). Verified against the current agency-issued NOFO on October 23, 2026.