NIJ Graduate Research Fellowship
Offers students and early career scholars with mentoring support for NIJ Graduate Research Fellowship in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
⚠This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, offers an annual Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) to support doctoral dissertation research relevant to criminal justice. The FY25 solicitation (O-NIJ-2025-172575) covers NIJ's six research portfolios, which include crime and crime prevention, law enforcement, adjudication, corrections, victims of crime, and cross-cutting research. Universities apply on behalf of their doctoral candidates; NIJ makes awards to the institution, which then supports the dissertation student. A pre-application informational webinar was held April 15, 2026.
The application process requires two sequential submissions: a Grants.gov registration step followed by a formal application in JustGrants, DOJ's grants management system. NIJ does not accept unsolicited proposals; GRF funding is available only through the annual competitive solicitation cycle. Award amounts and page limits are detailed in the full solicitation PDF attached to the opportunity page and were not captured in the structured fields at catalog entry. The FY25 JustGrants deadline was May 27, 2026, and this cycle is now closed. The next cycle is expected in spring 2027.
Eligibility is restricted to accredited U.S. universities applying on behalf of enrolled doctoral candidates whose dissertation research falls within NIJ's criminal justice priorities. Competitive applications pair a strong faculty advisor with a dissertation proposal that addresses a policy-relevant gap in criminal justice knowledge, includes a rigorous research design with appropriate methodology, and explicitly situates the work within NIJ's published research priorities. Students in criminology, law, public policy, psychology, and related disciplines have historically received awards.
Doctoral dissertation research relevant to criminal justice across NIJ's six research portfolios, with universities applying on behalf of doctoral candidates.
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