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Post-Award Requirements for Research, Development, and Evaluation Grants

This page is meant as a guide for applicants and award recipients to what is required of NIJ award recipients after an award is made. Award recipients should consult their specific award conditions for additional information. For questions about how these requirements pertain to your specific award, contact your NIJ grant manager.

Standard Forms

All award recipients must submit quarterly financial reports. See the DOJ Financial Guide for details.

If an application proposes research (including research and development) and/or evaluation, the applicant must demonstrate research/evaluation independence and integrity, including appropriate safeguards, before it may receive award funds. The applicant must demonstrate independence and integrity regarding both the research and/or evaluation project proposed in response to the solicitation, and any current or prior related projects.


Reporting Requirements

All research, development, and evaluation projects must submit periodic and final performance reports in the RPPR format. Most awards require semi-annual reporting. See Research Performance Progress Report Guidelines for NIJ Awardees for guidance. Performance reports that do not conform to this format will not be accepted.


Final Deliverable

Scientific Deliverable Requirements for Non-Forensic Research, Development, and Evaluation Awards

NIJ expects award recipients to generate scholarly products, such as peer-reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents, and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, awardees are required to submit a Final Research Report on, or before, the last day of the grant project period.

The Final Research Report should be a double-spaced manuscript that is well-developed, concise, and suitable for publication. Award recipients should expect that all or part of the final report will be made available to the public.

While there is no specific page limit, award recipients are strongly encouraged to produce succinct Final Research Reports with the expectation that overly long reports may be returned. Final Research Reports should be written in a manner that makes the content accessible to a broad audience which includes practitioners, policymakers, and other researchers.

The Final Research Report should include the following sections, which largely align to the RPPR format, but should be cumulative and prepared with public dissemination in mind.[1]

  • Cover Page with:
    • Federal award number (as it appears on the award document)
    • Project title (as it appears on the award document)
    • Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI)
      • Name
      • Title
    • Contact information (e-mail, address, and phone)
    • Award recipient organization (name and address)
    • Project period (as it appears on the award document)
    • Award amount (as it appears on the award document)
  • Summary of the project
    • Major goals and objectives
    • Research questions
    • Research design, methods, analytical and data analysis techniques
    • Expected applicability of the research
  • Participants and other collaborating organizations
  • Changes in approach from original design and reason for change, if applicable
  • Outcomes
    • Activities/accomplishments
    • Results and findings
    • Limitations
  • Artifacts
    • List of products (e.g., publications, conference papers, technologies, websites, databases), including locations of these products on the Internet or in other archives or databases
    • Data sets generated (broad descriptions will suffice)
    • Dissemination activities

Recipients of grants issued prior to 2017 are expected to generate scholarly products, such as peer reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, grantees are required to submit a Final Summary Overview. This Overview will summarize the research project and include sections that state the purpose, project subjects (if applicable), project design and methods, data analysis, findings, and implications for criminal justice policy and practice in the United States. The Draft Summary Overview should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages and should be submitted 90 days prior to the project’s end date. The Final Summary Overview is due at the end of the grant project period. Grant recipients should consult their award agreement or contact their assigned grant manager for further information regarding these delivery requirements.

NIJ funding supports evaluability assessments (EAs). An EA is a systematic process used to determine if a program or project is ready for an evaluation; if modifications are required to increase readiness; and if an evaluation is justified and likely to provide useful information.  At the conclusion of an EA, NIJ makes documentation resulting from EAs public. This documentation would include site reports and final technical reports. The awardee must ensure that all parties participating in EAs are in agreement with the public dissemination plan before work begins.


Scientific Deliverable Requirements for Forensic Science Research, Development, and Evaluation Awards[2]

Scholarly products (e.g., journal articles, software, databases, patents) are expected to be the primary outcomes of NIJ awards. Forensic science R&D awardees must also submit a Technical Summary of the project as an Award Deliverable in JustGrants by the last day of the project period.[34] This document should be concise, written for a general audience to include researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, and prepared with the expectation of public posting at NCJRS.

For awardees funded under the Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories program, the Technical Summary should include written documentation of methods, standard operating procedures and validation summary as appropriate. 

The Technical Summary should include:

  • COVER PAGE:
    • Project title
    • Award recipient organization
    • Principal Investigator
    • NIJ award number
    • Project period
    • Award amount
  • PROJECT SUMMARY:
    • Goals and objectives
    • Research questions
    • Summary of project design and methods
    • Summary of results
    • Applicability to criminal justice
  • PRODUCTS:
    • List of all scholarly products (with DOIs or other durable links), including:
      • Peer reviewed publications
      • Book chapters, theses, conference proceedings, etc.
      • Technologies developed (patents, prototypes, etc.)
      • Software, databases, other products
      • Archived research data
    • List of all dissemination activities (with DOIs or other durable links, if available), including:
      • Conference presentations
      • Webinars, workshops
      • General press, podcasts, and other media
  • APPENDIX
    Applies only to awardees under the Research and Evaluation for the Testing and Interpretation of Physical Evidence in Publicly Funded Forensic Laboratories program.
    • Documentation of methods
    • Standard operating procedures
    • Validation summary
  • REFERENCES, if applicable

NIJ expects award recipients to generate scholarly products, such as peer-reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents, and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, awardees are required to submit a Final Research Report on, or before, the last day of the grant project period.

The Final Research Report should be a double-spaced manuscript that is well-developed, concise, and suitable for publication. Award recipients should expect that all or part of the final report will be made available to the public.

While there is no specific page limit, award recipients are strongly encouraged to produce succinct Final Research Reports with the expectation that overly long reports may be returned. Final Research Reports should be written in a manner that makes the content accessible to a broad audience which includes practitioners, policymakers, and other researchers.

The Final Research Report should include the following sections, which largely align to the RPPR format, but should be cumulative and prepared with public dissemination in mind.[5]

  • Cover Page with:
    • Federal award number (as it appears on the award document)
    • Project title (as it appears on the award document)
    • Project Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI)
      • Name
      • Title
    • Contact information (e-mail, address, and phone)
    • Award recipient organization (name and address)
    • Project period (as it appears on the award document)
    • Award amount (as it appears on the award document)
  • Summary of the project
    • Major goals and objectives
    • Research questions
    • Research design, methods, analytical and data analysis techniques
    • Expected applicability of the research
  • Participants and other collaborating organizations
  • Changes in approach from original design and reason for change, if applicable
  • Outcomes
    • Activities/accomplishments
    • Results and findings
    • Limitations
  • Artifacts
    • List of products (e.g., publications, conference papers, technologies, websites, databases), including locations of these products on the Internet or in other archives or databases
    • Data sets generated (broad descriptions will suffice)
    • Dissemination activities

Recipients of grants issued prior to 2017 are expected to generate scholarly products, such as peer reviewed journal articles, law review articles, patents and prototypes, as appropriate. In addition, grantees are required to submit a Final Summary Overview. This Overview will summarize the research project and include sections that state the purpose, project subjects (if applicable), project design and methods, data analysis, findings, and implications for criminal justice policy and practice in the United States. The Draft Summary Overview should not exceed 10 double-spaced pages, and should be submitted 90 days prior to the project’s end date. The Final Summary Overview is due at the end of the grant project period. Grant recipients should consult their award agreement or contact their assigned grant manager for further information regarding these delivery requirements.


Graduate Research Fellowships

The final deliverable for a Graduate Research Fellowship award is a copy of the student’s dissertation, defended and approved by the dissertation committee. It should be submitted within 120 days after the award period end date. NIJ may forward the dissertation for public archiving or abstracting at NCJRS. Any request for an embargo period on public archiving of the full text dissertation (up to 12 months, on reasonable request) or for abstracting only, with a link to an external full-text resource (such as a dissertation repository), must be made to the grant manager at the time of submission.

Human Subjects and Privacy Protection

All NIJ employees, contractors, and award recipients must be cognizant of the importance of protecting the rights and welfare of human subject research participants. All research conducted at NIJ or supported with NIJ funds must comply with all Federal, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs, and NIJ regulations and policies concerning the protection of human subjects and the DOJ confidentiality requirements.

Find additional guidance regarding human subjects and privacy protection.

Participant Support Costs and Incentives

Participant support costs, which includes stipends, are allowable for some research projects funded by NIJ with the appropriate justification and approval. Participant support costs may include direct costs for items such as subsistence allowances, travel allowances, and registration fees paid to, or on behalf of, participants or trainees (but not employees) in connection with the proposed research study.

Find more information on participant support costs, including how to prepare a request for the use of incentives on an NIJ award.

Learn more from OJP's Grant Application Resource Guide.

Publications Repository

NIJ strongly encourages use of the Grant Product Submission Form to submit products resulting from NIJ-funded work to our repository (NCJRS). These can include peer-reviewed journal articles, reports published by the grantee organization, and more. See the "Products" section on Research Performance Progress Report Guidelines for NIJ Awardees.

Do not use this form to submit performance reports or scientific deliverables. Performance reports and scientific deliverables must be submitted in JustGrants. See available training on JustGrants for assistance.

Data Archiving

NIJ requires award recipients to archive their research data according to their approved Data Archiving Plan. This promotes transparency and ensures the availability of federally funded data for discovery, reuse, replication, and reproduction of research results. See data archiving requirement and guidance.

Data archiving is encouraged, but not required, for Graduate Research Fellowship awards.

Date Published: July 28, 2022