NIJ FY 2023 Invited to Apply - Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program | O NIJ 2023 171589

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2023 171589

The NIJ FY 2023 Invited to Apply - Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program is a Department of Justice grant opportunity tied to congressionally designated spending (an earmark-style program) under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328). It is administered within DOJ by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) listed as the awarding component for this specific funding opportunity. The overall purpose is to fund specific, named community projects that Congress identified in the accompanying explanatory statement for the 2023 appropriations law, rather than running a wide-open competitive program where any applicant proposes any project.

At a high level, the program sits within OJP priorities that emphasize civil rights and racial equity, improved access to justice, support for victims of crime and people impacted by the justice system, stronger community safety, protection from evolving public safety threats, and increased trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In practical terms, the funding is meant to improve how the criminal justice system functions, to prevent or combat juvenile delinquency, and to provide assistance to crime victims (explicitly excluding direct victim compensation). This scope is consistent with the Byrne discretionary grant tradition of supporting state and local criminal justice improvements, but in this case the appropriations language makes clear the funds are directed to projects listed in the explanatory statement and incorporated by reference into the law.

The legal authority cited for the awards is the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2023, contained within Public Law 117-328 (136 Stat. 4459, 4535). The opportunity description points to a total amount referenced in the explanatory statement: $229,551,000 for discretionary grants under the heading "Byrne Discretionary Community Project Grants/Byrne Discretionary Grants," with the instruction that these dollars are to be used for the projects, and in the amounts, specified in that explanatory statement. That framing is an important signal that eligibility and award amounts are driven by congressional designation, and that applicants are typically entities that were specifically named or otherwise directed to apply for a particular project.

Administratively, this funding opportunity is categorized as an earmark opportunity and uses the grant funding instrument type. The listed funding activity category is "Science and Technology and other Research and Development," and the CFDA (now commonly referred to as Assistance Listing) number is 16.753. While NIJ is DOJ's research, development, and evaluation arm, the stated programmatic goals in the description are broader criminal justice system improvement, delinquency prevention, and victim services support, which can include technology, evaluation, and other capacity-building components depending on the designated project.

Key logistics from the opportunity record include a creation date of February 10, 2023, and an original application closing date of March 23, 2023. The expected number of awards is 2, and the stated award ceiling is $2,500,000. Those figures suggest a small number of relatively large awards tied to particular designated projects, rather than many smaller awards spread across a national applicant pool.

Eligibility is summarized in the record as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," which is typical for invited or designated-project solicitations where the eligible applicant is not the full universe of public entities or nonprofits, but instead a narrower set connected to the congressional designation. In other words, this is not usually a solicitation intended for general applicants to discover and compete for; it is generally aimed at recipients who have been identified in the appropriations process and are being instructed to submit an application so DOJ can make the award and apply standard federal grant requirements.

In summary, this NIJ FY 2023 Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding opportunity is a congressionally directed DOJ grant program designed to carry out specific criminal justice, juvenile delinquency prevention, and victim assistance projects listed in the FY 2023 appropriations explanatory statement. It aligns with OJP priorities around equity, justice access, victim support, community safety, and trust-building, and it provides grant funding (with awards up to $2.5 million, and only a small number of expected awards) to invited/designed recipients under the statutory authority of Public Law 117-328.

• 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 FY 2023 Invited to Apply - Byrne Discretionary Community Project Funding/Byrne Discretionary Grants Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.753.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 10, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 23, 2023. (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 $2,500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O NIJ 2023 171589

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