BJA FY 23 Field Initiated: Encouraging Innovation | O BJA 2023 171755

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJA 2023 171755

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), within the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs (OJP), offered the FY 2023 Field Initiated: Encouraging Innovation opportunity to fund new, practical, and scalable ideas that can help prevent and reduce crime, improve community safety, and strengthen outcomes across the criminal justice system. The core purpose of the program is to support field-driven innovation, meaning proposals are expected to come from on-the-ground needs and to be built through collaboration among practitioners, communities, researchers, and other partners. BJA emphasized that funded work should advance civil rights and racial equity, expand access to justice, support crime victims and people impacted by the justice system, and build public trust between residents and the justice system, including law enforcement.

This solicitation focused on strategies that either test new approaches, fill gaps in current responses, translate research into practice, or build capacity in agencies and communities. BJA made clear that proposals should not duplicate other BJA-funded solicitations; instead, they should offer a distinct contribution and be designed in a way that can broadly benefit the national criminal justice field. In other words, the strongest projects are not just local pilots, but efforts that can produce tools, models, lessons learned, and evidence that other jurisdictions can adopt or adapt.

BJA highlighted several priority problem areas. One is responding to sharp increases in crime, particularly violent crime, while also improving a system's ability to track, analyze, and respond to those increases. Another is addressing substance use disorders, including prevention efforts and responses to drug overdoses and overdose fatalities. A third priority is improving outcomes for justice-involved individuals, including people currently incarcerated and those returning to the community after incarceration, which can include work tied to reentry supports, supervision practices, service connections, and reducing recidivism through more effective interventions. A fourth area is responding to increases in hate crimes and improving access to justice and supportive services for impacted individuals and communities. Across all these areas, BJA expected applicants to incorporate approaches and tools that support criminal justice reforms and strengthen public confidence and trust.

The award mechanism for this opportunity was a cooperative agreement, which generally means the funder anticipates a more active role in the project compared to a standard grant, such as ongoing collaboration, coordination, or technical input during implementation. The funding opportunity number was O-BJA-2023-171755, and it was classified as a discretionary program within the Law, Justice, and Legal Services activity category. The relevant CFDA numbers listed were 16.040, 16.585, 16.738, 16.812, and 16.838.

Eligibility was broad and included state, county, and city or township governments; special district governments; federally recognized tribal governments; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; nonprofit organizations (both with and without 501(c)(3) status, as long as they are not institutions of higher education); and for-profit organizations other than small businesses. BJA anticipated making about 10 awards, with an award ceiling of $1,000,000 per award. The solicitation was created on April 27, 2023, and the original application closing date was June 8, 2023.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 23 Field Initiated: Encouraging Innovation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.040, 16.585, 16.738, 16.812, 16.838.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 27, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 08, 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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses.

Apply for O BJA 2023 171755

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