An update on the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was prepared by Lewis-Burke Associates.

NIJ released a list of anticipated research interests for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. This list includes 15 topics, under which a majority are focused on research and evaluation. It is important to note that these topic ideas are subject to change and may not result in a funding opportunity depending on final priorities and available funding. NIJ typically releases funding opportunities between December and May, though this timeline may be delayed due to the lack of resolution on the FY 2025 spending bills. The topics include:

Research and Evaluation

• Critical Intersections of Drug market trends, interdiction, and prosecution efforts to disrupt drug, firearm, and violent crimes
• Social science research and evaluative studies on forensic science systems
• Evaluations of emerging technology implementation and impact for law enforcement purposes
• Research and evaluation on school safety
• Research and evaluation on hate crimes
• Research and evaluation that informs policy and practice in youth justice
• Research and evaluation projects to better understand and respond to human trafficking in the United States
• Research and evaluation projects to identify and inform the forensic community of best practices
• Innovative research on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the criminal justice system
• Research on community-based violence intervention programs
• Research and evaluation projects on the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older adults
• Research and evaluation projects that advance understanding of crime victim/survivor needs and inform improvements to services in several areas

Applied Research

• Applied research on policing practices
• Applied research and evaluation on institutional and community corrections
• Foundational or applied research and development projects in the forensic sciences

Sources and Additional Info

• More specific details on the anticipated NIJ FY 2025 Research Interests is available at https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/anticipated-nij-research-interests-fy2025.
• Prior NIJ funding opportunities can be found at https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/expired.
• Current and prior NIJ awards are available at https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/list.