W.E.B. Du Bois Program of Research on Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Justice System, Fiscal Year 2021

The Department of Justice is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights, increases access to justice, supports crime victims, protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Program supports quantitative and quantitative research that furthers the Department's mission by advancing knowledge regarding the intersections of race, crime, violence, and the administration of justice within the United States. In FY 2021 under the W.E.B. Program, NIJ seeks applications for funding of investigator-initiated research examining how observed racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system might be reduced through public policy interventions at any point during the administration of justice. NIJ seeks applications for funding from two categories of researchers:

W.E.B. Du Bois Scholars - Researchers who are advanced in their careers (awarded a terminal degree at least seven years prior to December 31, 2021) may apply for grants for research, evaluation, and mentoring less-experienced researchers.
W.E.B. Du Bois Fellows - Researchers who are early in their careers (awarded a terminal degree within seven years of December 31, 2021) may apply for grants for research and evaluation.

Under this solicitation, NIJ will only consider applications for research on public policy interventions that may reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system.

Prospective applicants from all racial and ethnic backgrounds are eligible to apply to the W.E.B. Du Bois Program. Researchers of color and women are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications must identify under which Category a proposal is submitted. NIJ will accept proposals to examine how observed racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system might be reduced through public policy in either the criminal and juvenile justice context or both.

Although not required, NIJ encourages applicants to consider researcher-practitioner partnerships in responding to this solicitation. Research can provide practical solutions to the obstacles faced by criminal justice practitioners as they work to reduce racial and ethnic disparities. Through these partnerships, criminal justice practitioners can independently assess their programs and measure outcomes. Likewise, criminal justice researchers can better understand the goals and purposes criminal justice practitioners seek to achieve, and therefore provide more practical solutions for practitioners. Ultimately, these partnerships provide criminal justice practitioners with practice- and policy-relevant information, while affording researchers the opportunity to contribute to the current body of knowledge.

Applications proposing research involving partnerships with criminal justice or other agencies should include a strong letter of support, signed (hard/wet, electronic, digital signature) by an appropriate decision-making authority from each proposed partnering agency. A letter of support should include the partnering agency's acknowledgment that de-identified data derived from, provided to, or obtained through this project will be archived by the grant recipient with the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) at the conclusion of the award. Applicants and their potential partners are encouraged to review the NACJD's policies and protections. If selected for an award, grantees will be expected to have a formal agreement in place with partnering agencies by July 1, 2022. That formal agreement must include a provision to meet the data archiving requirements of the award.

In the case of partnerships that will involve the use of federal award funds from multiple partnering agencies to carry out the proposed project, only one entity/partnering agency may be the applicant (as is the case with any application submitted in response to this solicitation); any others must be proposed as subrecipients.