NIJ FY22 Research on Monitoring Child Maltreatment in Youth Serving Organizations | O NIJ 2022 171436

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2022 171436

The NIJ FY22 Research on Monitoring Child Maltreatment in Youth Serving Organizations grant is a discretionary research award from the Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, designed to fund a feasibility study on how a federal system could be created to count and track incidents of sexual abuse and other forms of child maltreatment occurring within youth serving organizations. The central idea is to determine whether a national tracking structure is practical and how it should be built, including decisions about what kinds of cases would be included. The solicitation notes that the system could include substantiated cases, but it is not limited to substantiated cases, which signals an interest in exploring broader definitions and data sources than only those that result in formal findings.

This opportunity is framed within the Office of Justice Programs broader priorities around civil rights and racial equity, access to justice, support for victims and justice-involved individuals, strengthening community safety, and building trust between law enforcement and communities. In practice, that framing implies the research should pay attention to fairness, potential disparities in reporting or enforcement, and the real-world impacts on survivors, families, organizations, and systems that respond to maltreatment. NIJ encourages proposals that use rigorous mixed-methods approaches, meaning applicants should expect to combine quantitative and qualitative strategies such as statistical assessment of existing data sources, structured interviews or focus groups, policy and legal analysis, and operational mapping of reporting pathways. The solicitation also emphasizes that the work should be inclusive of practitioners and impacted individuals, so competitive projects would likely include meaningful engagement with people who have lived experience as well as those working in prevention, oversight, investigation, or victim services.

Eligible applicants are accredited institutions of higher education, including public/state-controlled and private universities, with additional eligibility potentially available as clarified in the solicitation. The funding instrument is a grant under the research and development activity category (CFDA 16.560). NIJ anticipated making one award, with a maximum award amount (ceiling) of $1,500,000. The opportunity was posted on September 6, 2022, and had an original application deadline of October 24, 2022.

A major operational requirement involves data stewardship and archiving. If a proposed project includes partnerships with criminal justice agencies or other organizations, the application should include strong letters of support signed by an appropriate decision-making authority from each partnering agency. These letters are not just endorsements; they must explicitly acknowledge that de-identified data connected to the project, whether generated by the study or obtained through partners, will be archived by the grant recipient with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the end of the award. NIJ also encourages applicants and partners to review NACJD policies and protections, which underscores that data management, confidentiality, and documentation standards are a serious component of the work.

The solicitation further requires that, if selected, the grantee must have formal agreements in place with partnering agencies by July 1, 2023. Those agreements must include provisions that ensure the project can meet the NACJD archiving requirement. This is important for planning because it affects timelines, legal review, data sharing permissions, privacy constraints, and the practical ability to obtain data from agencies that may have different rules or risk tolerances. Finally, the opportunity clarifies how partnerships should be structured financially: only one entity can apply as the lead applicant, and any other participating organizations that will receive federal funds to carry out parts of the project must be included as subrecipients rather than co-applicants.

• 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 "NIJ FY22 Research on Monitoring Child Maltreatment in Youth Serving Organizations" 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 Sep 06, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 24, 2022. (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 $1,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O NIJ 2022 171436

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