BJA FY 18 Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety | BJA 2018 13573

Opportunity Information: Apply for BJA 2018 13573

The BJA FY 18 Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number BJA 2018 13573) is a discretionary grant program run by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. It is designed to fund practical, field-driven ideas that can be developed and tested in real-world criminal justice settings, with the goal of improving safety for law enforcement officers and the public. The program’s overall intent is to create a strong pipeline of creative, locally informed solutions that can ultimately be replicated or adapted across jurisdictions nationwide.

At its core, the solicitation emphasizes innovation and testing. Applicants are expected to propose new or adapted approaches, tools, strategies, or programs that can directly reduce harm, prevent deaths, and strengthen public safety outcomes. BJA’s framing highlights responsiveness to emerging issues and locally driven public safety solutions, meaning proposals are meant to come from problems observed in the field and be grounded in operational realities rather than purely theoretical research. The outcomes and lessons learned from funded projects are positioned as potential national models for the broader criminal justice system.

The opportunity is also explicitly tied to several major public safety priorities. It seeks projects that contribute to reducing violent crime, including violent crime affecting tribes and tribal members, and it notes the need to address the nation’s opioid epidemic. This signals that competitive proposals could involve innovations related to overdose prevention and response, officer safety in encounters involving opioids or other hazardous substances, strategies to reduce violent incidents, and approaches that improve safety outcomes in tribal communities or in cases involving tribal members. The emphasis is not limited to one type of intervention, and the solicitation language suggests openness to a wide range of solution types as long as they are aimed at improving officer and public safety and can demonstrate measurable, transferable lessons.

From an administrative standpoint, awards are issued as cooperative agreements rather than standard grants, which generally indicates a more active federal role during the project period, such as collaboration, technical assistance involvement, or closer coordination on deliverables. The award ceiling is $500,000 per award, with an expected 13 awards, reflecting a program designed to support multiple pilot or demonstration efforts rather than a single large national project. The CFDA number associated with the program is 16.738, and the funding activity categories span law, justice and legal services, science and technology/research and development, and related areas, reinforcing that both operational and applied R&D-style proposals may be relevant.

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning it is broadly open to different entity types, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may appear in the full solicitation. In practical terms, that typically means a wide range of applicants may be able to apply, such as state or local agencies, tribal governments and organizations, nonprofits, educational institutions, and other entities involved in justice and public safety work, assuming they meet any specific requirements in the complete application guidance.

Key dates included in the posting show the opportunity was created on June 28, 2018, with an original application closing date of July 30, 2018. Overall, the program is best understood as BJA’s effort to catalyze and evaluate practical innovations coming directly from practitioners and stakeholders, producing evidence and lessons that can strengthen officer safety, protect communities, reduce violence, and respond more effectively to opioid-related threats.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance in the employment, labor and training, humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda), law, justice and legal services, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY 18 Supporting Innovation: Field-Initiated Programs to Improve Officer and Public Safety" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.738.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jun 28, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 30, 2018. (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 $500,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 13 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for BJA 2018 13573

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