Alternatives to Law & Science (LS)

Treasury is publishing multiple funding opportunity notices for its RESTORE Act grant programs. This announcement applies only to the Centers of Excellence Research Grants Program.Trust Fund amounts are available to establish one or more Centers of Excellence through competitive subawards to nongovernmental entities and consortia in the Gulf Coast Region, including institutions of higher education. Funds may be used to establish Centers of Excellence, and by those Centers of Excellence for science, technology, and monitoring in one or more of the following disciplines as described in the RESTORE Act and Treasury’s implementing regulations at 31 CFR 34.704: 1) Coastal and deltaic sustainability, restoration, and protection, including solutions and technology that allow citizens to live in a safe and sustainable manner in a coastal delta in the Gulf Coast Region. 2) Coastal fisheries and wildlife ecosystem research and monitoring in the Gulf Coast Region. 3) Offshore energy development, including research and technology to improve the sustainable and safe development of energy resources in the Gulf of Mexico. 4) Sustainable and resilient growth, economic and commercial development in the Gulf Coast Region. 5) Comprehensive observation, monitoring, and mapping of the Gulf of Mexico.Eligible applicants issuing subawards to Center(s) of Excellence must establish and implement a program to monitor compliance with its subaward agreements.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the NIJ FY 2026 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Byrne State Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP).1 This opportunity will support research and evaluation to assess the effectiveness of programs funded under FYs 2022-2026 BJA’s Byrne SCIP NOFOs. BJA’s Byrne SCIP provides funding for the creation or enhancement of state crisis intervention court proceedings and related programs or initiatives, including extreme risk protection order (ERPO) programs, as well as mental health courts, drug courts, and veterans treatment courts. Such programs or initiatives can include, but are not limited to: 1) Law enforcement crisis interventions; 2) Court-based programming; 3) Referrals to treatment for people in crisis; and 4) ERPO programs. Applicants may apply to assess multiple program areas where applicable. NIJ anticipates making at least one award per topic area for a total of 4 awards. Applicants should clearly state the program area(s) on the title page. This NOFO invites applications proposing a two-phased evaluation strategy to assess Byrne SCIP. The approach includes: • Phase I: Evaluability Assessments. • Phase II: An Evaluation of the Byrne SCIP’s Effectiveness. Applications to this NOFO should include both phases. Applications that do not meet this requirement would not be considered responsive to this funding opportunity.

The Department of Defense (DoD) announces the Fiscal Year 2027 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP). DURIP is designed to improve the capabilities of accredited United States (U.S.) institutions of higher education to conduct research and to educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense, by providing funds for the acquisition of research equipment or instrumentation. For-profit organizations are not eligible for DURIP funding.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for NIJ FY 2026 Research and Evaluation on School Safety. This opportunity will support rigorous research and evaluation projects to fill key gaps regarding K-12 safety, specifically focusing on the development, deployment, and operation of: • Anonymous reporting systems for threats of school violence, including mobile telephone applications, hotlines, and internet websites • School threat assessment and intervention teams that include coordination with law enforcement agencies and school personnel This NOFO seeks rigorous outcome/impact evaluations paired with process/implementation evaluations to assess the effectiveness of activities supported by STOP1 School Violence Act (SVA) projects administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) or similar programs from other sources that align with STOP SVA's goals. To develop practical recommendations for K-12 school safety, applicants are strongly encouraged to work closely with educators, school stakeholders, and communities to develop questions, identify solutions, collect data, and interpret findings. Applicants should: • Clearly describe complex factors and how they will be measured. • Include letters of support confirming secondary data access and explain how datasets will be matched to support the analyses proposed. • Describe data limitations, how they will be addressed, and their potential impact on findings.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the NIJ FY 2026 Crime and Justice Research. This opportunity NOFO calls for applications in two categories: Category 1: Crime and Justice Research: Category 1 will support applications for research on new programs, strategies, and technological solutions to improve workforce effectiveness, enhance operational readiness, and support safety in the adult criminal justice system. Category 2: Assessment of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) De-escalation Training Program: Category 2 will support proposals to study the implementation and impact of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) De-Escalation Training Program.

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the NIJ FY 2026 Research and Evaluation on Justice System Responses to Illegal Immigration. This opportunity supports proposals for rigorous, applied research and evaluations examining the adult criminal justice system (courts, law enforcement, jails, prisons, and community supervision) challenges and responses to illegal immigration and crimes committed by aliens while in the U.S. illegally at the state, local, and tribal levels. This includes, but is not limited to, location and apprehension, court operations, transportation and detention, investigating fraud and other crimes committed by illegal aliens, including creating an accurate profile of their rates of criminal activity, counter gang and criminal activity including drug and human trafficking operations. Criminal justice agencies often develop innovative solutions to local challenges that may provide insight to other jurisdictions. Applicants may propose studies examining single or multiple states and jurisdictions and models of cooperation between federal, state, local and tribal justice systems and other stakeholders. The goal of this NOFO is to identify innovative local strategies, evaluate their effectiveness, and inform practical, data-driven solutions that inform and strengthen the strategies that state, local, and tribal justice systems use to address illegal immigration.

American scientists and engineers will power the super intelligence (SI) revolution in science and innovation through the Genesis Mission .  DOE SC hereby invites applications from United States (U.S.) Institutions of Higher Education and domestic doctoral-granting institutions to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of novel four-year doctoral training pilots with dual competency in SI and another scientific discipline.  Two high-impact research experiences are required as part of the pilot, one at a DOE National Laboratory or SC user facility and one in industry.  The purpose of this pilot is to lay the foundation for the first cohort of Genesis Mission Graduate Fellows, representing a new generation of Ph.D.-level scientists and engineers with exceptional training in SI and scientific disciplines along with practical research experiences. All graduate fellowships supported by this NOFO must support research activities related to SC-relevant Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges as detailed in the Request for Applications (RFA), DE-FOA-0003612 .  

The DOE Office of Science (SC), Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI), Office of Environmental Management (EM), Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Office of Electricity (OE), and Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Office (HGEO) hereby announce interest in receiving applications from interdisciplinary teams addressing the Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges to accelerate scientific discovery and research and development (R&D) workflows using novel artificial intelligence (AI) models and frameworks. By achieving AI advantage, these teams will advance the DOE's mission and ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through science and technology. Teams are encouraged to leverage the extensive scientific and data resources of the DOE/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the National Laboratories, U.S. industry, and academia. The resulting AI models and workflows, if successful, may be integrated into the American Science Cloud.   DOE is soliciting new FY26 Phase I small team and Phase II large team applications in the following topic areas: advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, critical materials, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, quantum information science, semiconductors and microelectronics, discovery science, and energy (see specific focus areas in Section III Program Descriptions).   In addition, this RFA will remain available to allow the recipients of FY26 Phase I awards to apply for larger team Phase II awards. In a few weeks, DOE plans to amend the RFA to clarify the LOI and application guidelines for FY26 Phase II awards. In FY27, DOE plans to amend the RFA or to issue an alternative funding opportunity to update the topic and focus areas to allow a second competition of Phase I small team applications and Phase II large team applications.

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the establishment of the Quantum Genesis initiative to develop and deploy the world’s first fault-tolerant, scientifically relevant quantum computing (SRQC) capability for research and development. The Department seeks to realize this bold ambition through the Quantum Genesis Q Competition (herein, the Q Competition), a first of its kind effort to accelerate the timeline for realizing this novel, transformative capability. The Quantum Genesis initiative will serve as a foundational pillar of the broader Genesis Mission, designed to usher in a new era of computational power for the nation and accelerate scientific discovery and innovation. The announcement of the Quantum Genesis initiative marks a significant step toward the Department’s goals outlined in President Trump’s Executive Order (EO), Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation and its Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science (QC-ADDS) effort.[1] This request for applications (RFA) invites proposals from domestic commercial entities have a technically viable plan for the Quantum Genesis program and achieving the milestones of the Q Competition. The intent of the Q Competition is to accelerate the development timeline for SRQCs, align successful applicants with the needs of the Department and the scientific community, and to enable the necessary scaling of quantum hardware, software, and enabling technology while developing scientific workflows that ensure SRQCs contribute to national scientific and technological advancement. In addition to the goal of building the first-generation SRQC, these partners may also help to form the technical foundation for DOE’s continued efforts into the 2030s to deploy one or more next-generation SRQCs at National Laboratories. DOE envisions this competition as a first step toward scaling fault-tolerant quantum computers to scientific relevance alongside other ongoing and planned activities. DOE acknowledges that potential vendors may have timelines that do not coincide with this competition, even though they may have a viable path to future platforms of interest to the DOE. Failure to participate or complete the milestones does not disqualify an entity or vendor from future DOE collaborations or procurements. 

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the NIJ FY 2026 Research and Evaluation on Human Trafficking. This opportunity supports proposals for rigorous research and evaluation projects to better understand, respond to, and reduce Human Trafficking in the United States in three areas: (1) prevention, including justice system and other initiatives to prevent trafficking in the first place or to prevent further harm after it has occurred, (2) evaluation of federal policies that may have the unintended consequence of perpetuating or increasing human trafficking, and (3) applied research and program evaluations that directly support effective services for American victims. This NOFO is released by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in collaboration with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is issuing this announcement for various research and development topic areas. The ERDC consists of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (CHL), the Geotechnical and Structures Laboratory (GSL), the Environmental Laboratory (EL) and the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) in Champaign, Illinois, and the Geospatial Research Laboratory (GRL) in Alexandria, Virginia. The ERDC is responsible for conducting research in the broad fields of hydraulics, dredging, coastal engineering, instrumentation, oceanography, remote sensing, geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, soil effects, vehicle mobility, self-contained munitions, military engineering, geophysics, pavements, protective structures, aquatic plants, water quality, dredged material, treatment of hazardous waste, wetlands, physical/mechanical/ chemical properties of snow and other frozen precipitation, infrastructure and environmental issues for installations, computer science, telecommunications management, energy, facilities maintenance, materials and structures, engineering processes, environmental processes, land and heritage conservation, and ecological processes. This announcement is continuously open; pre-proposals may be submitted and will be reviewed at any time throughout the year. The availability of funds may limit the ability of the U.S. Government to make awards in specific areas, nevertheless pre-proposals are sought under this announcement for all research areas identified. For additional details on the research topic areas and how to submit pre-proposals, please go to: https://www.erdcwerx.org/u-s-army-engineer-research-and-development-center-broad-agency-announcement/

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the NIJ FY 2026 Research on Gender Dysphoria and Violent Crime. This opportunity will support foundational research on gender dysphoria, its treatment, and the perpetration of violence and violent behavior. Available empirical evidence regarding this topic is limited, particularly in regard to underlying causal mechanisms. To address these gaps, NIJ is interested in retrospective, secondary data analyses that explore gender dysphoria, its treatment, and the perpetration of violence and violent behavior. Examples include, but are not limited to: • Prevalence rates of violent crime and behavior for this population, to include demographic information and crime type characteristics. • Post-conviction analyses, to include analyses based on individuals who have been incarcerated. • Analyses examining the relationship between violence and gender dysphoria diagnosis and/or treatment. • Research on the victim/offender overlap or other contextual factors to interpret trends. • Impact of comorbidities (e.g., substance use disorders and/or mental health disorders) on the relationship between violence and gender dysphoria diagnosis and/or treatment.