The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice, offers a competitive applicant-facing research and evaluation grant under O-NIJ-2026-172806, released October 22, 2026. The full program title is NIJ FY 2026 Research and Evaluation on Violent Crime: Gangs and Organized Criminal Groups (Domestic and Transnational). This is financial assistance for eligible research projects, not a government purchasing contract.
Research focus
NIJ seeks rigorous research and evaluations of law-enforcement-led or law-enforcement-partnered strategies to prevent and reduce violent crime associated with gangs and organized criminal groups or networks. The research should examine implementation, effectiveness and contextual factors, with outcome measures such as homicide, aggravated assault and robbery. Appropriate designs may include randomized trials where feasible, quasi-experimental and matched-comparison studies, mixed methods, and process evaluations; multi-site or cross-jurisdictional research is encouraged. Outputs must inform evidence-based public safety practice.
Funding and award terms
The NOFO anticipates $3,000,000 in total program funding for approximately five grants. Individual award amounts are not predetermined: NIJ determines awards according to the requirements of selected research proposals, potentially up to the full amount available under this NOFO. The $3,000,000 overall pool is not the standard or guaranteed award for each applicant. Matching funds are not required. NIJ anticipates awards by February 1, 2027 with projects lasting up to 60 months; award clearance may constrain project activities for roughly three months.
Two mandatory application deadlines
Stage 1: Submit the required SF-424 through Grants.gov by November 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Stage 2: Submit the full application through DOJ JustGrants by December 7, 2026, at 8:59 p.m. Eastern Time. Applicants should begin SAM.gov registration or renewal no later than November 16, 2026. The December JustGrants date is not an extension of the earlier required Grants.gov step.
Eligible applicants
Eligible U.S. entities include state, county, city/township and special-district governments; federally recognized and other Tribal governments; independent school districts; public or private universities and colleges; qualifying nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; and businesses, including small businesses. Non-U.S. entities are ineligible. Collaborative projects may involve partners, but one eligible entity must be the lead applicant; partners may be proposed as subrecipients. An eligible applicant may submit separate applications for genuinely different projects.
Budget, restrictions and required materials
Research expenditures must be reasonable, necessary and allocable under applicable federal grant and DOJ financial rules. Applicants should budget project personnel, methods and data activities with documented calculations and justification; consult the NOFO for the specific statutory, federal civil-rights, immigration-law and legal-services funding restrictions and other unallowable activities. Where indirect costs are charged under an approved rate, attach the applicable agreement; consultant-rate and compensation limitations may also apply. This is research funding rather than a general law-enforcement equipment purchase or direct-service contract.
The JustGrants submission requires standard applicant information, a proposal narrative no longer than 30 pages (double-spaced, 12-point font, one-inch margins), a detailed electronic budget, required researcher biographical sketches and current/pending-support forms, applicable assurances, disclosures and research attachments, and any relevant human-subjects, privacy, data-management or partner documentation. Grantees must provide scholarly and practice-oriented dissemination, a final paper, data archiving as required, and performance reports.
Controlling official sources: NIJ grant announcement and full 14-page NIJ NOFO (PDF). Details verified against the original NIJ solicitation on October 23, 2026. Follow both official submission systems and their current instructions.