NIJ FY 2026 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) | O NIJ 2026 172798

Opportunity Information: Apply for O NIJ 2026 172798

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is offering a discretionary funding opportunity (NOFO) for FY 2026 focused on evaluating the effectiveness of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP). The purpose of this solicitation is to fund research and evaluation that can credibly assess how well Byrne SCIP-funded efforts are working across the funding years FY 2022 through FY 2026. In practical terms, NIJ is looking for strong, applied research that can examine real-world implementation and outcomes of state and local crisis intervention approaches supported by Byrne SCIP dollars, and produce findings that can inform policy and practice.

Byrne SCIP itself is a BJA program that supports the creation or enhancement of state crisis intervention court proceedings and related initiatives. It spans several kinds of crisis response and court-linked interventions, including extreme risk protection order (ERPO) programs as well as specialty courts such as mental health courts, drug courts, and veterans treatment courts. The NOFO also recognizes that SCIP-funded work can show up in multiple connected areas, including law enforcement crisis intervention activities, court-based programming, referral pathways to treatment for individuals in crisis, and ERPO-related processes. Applicants are allowed to propose evaluations that cover more than one of these areas when that makes sense for the jurisdictions and programs being studied, but they must clearly identify on the application title page which program area or areas their proposal addresses.

A key feature of this NOFO is that NIJ requires a two-phased evaluation strategy, and proposals must include both phases to be considered responsive. Phase I is an evaluability assessment, which generally means the funded team will determine whether programs are ready for rigorous evaluation by examining things like program design clarity, implementation consistency, availability and quality of data, and whether there are measurable outcomes and comparison options that make an effectiveness evaluation feasible. Phase II is the actual effectiveness evaluation of Byrne SCIP-funded programming, building on what is learned in Phase I. Applications that do not propose both Phase I and Phase II are explicitly not eligible under this solicitation, so NIJ is signaling that it wants projects that first confirm evaluation feasibility and then move into outcomes-focused research rather than jumping straight to impact claims without groundwork.

NIJ anticipates making a total of four awards, with an expectation of making at least one award per topic area, which implies the solicitation is structured around multiple program areas or evaluation topics and NIJ wants coverage across them rather than funding only one narrow slice of SCIP activity. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means NIJ expects a more active role in project oversight and collaboration than with a standard grant, such as involvement in refining deliverables, coordinating across related projects, or ensuring consistency with federal research expectations.

The maximum award amount listed is $5,943,493, and the expected number of awards is four. The original application closing date is November 16, 2026, and the opportunity was created on October 9, 2026. The CFDA number tied to this opportunity is 16.560, and the activity category is Science and Technology and other Research and Development, reflecting the emphasis on research design, evaluation methods, and evidence generation rather than direct service delivery.

Eligibility is broad and includes state governments; county governments; city or township governments; special district governments; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments; other tribal organizations; nonprofits (both with and without 501(c)(3) status); for-profit organizations (including those other than small businesses); small businesses; and other eligible applicants as allowed under the solicitation. The NOFO also clarifies that "other units of local government" include towns, boroughs, parishes, villages, and other general-purpose political subdivisions of a state, which matters for smaller jurisdictions that may not fit the more common city or county categories.

Overall, this opportunity is designed to build evidence about whether and how Byrne SCIP investments are improving crisis intervention systems and related legal processes, including ERPO implementation and the operation of specialty courts and diversion or treatment referral pathways. NIJ is effectively asking applicants to propose a structured evaluation plan that starts with confirming what can realistically be measured and compared (Phase I) and then produces defensible conclusions about program effectiveness (Phase II), with the likelihood that the results will be used to guide future federal, state, tribal, and local decisions about crisis intervention and related court-based initiatives.

• The National Institute of Justice in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "NIJ FY 2026 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.560.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2026-10-09.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2026-11-16. (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 $5,943,493.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 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), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), 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, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for O NIJ 2026 172798

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