FY 2021 Invited to Apply - NCS-X NIBRS Estimation Project | O BJS 2021 64001

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJS 2021 64001

The FY 2021 Invited to Apply - NCS-X NIBRS Estimation Project is a continuation, cooperative agreement opportunity from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). It supports the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) work focused on building and validating national-level statistics derived from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The supplemental funding is designed specifically to move the project from development into a testing phase, helping BJS evaluate whether the estimation approach built under the original award performs as intended when applied to real NIBRS submissions.

The proposed supplemental award covers a 12-month project period running from October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2022. During this time, the central goal is to test the estimation processes previously developed. In the original award, the project work centered on three core deliverables: first, creating procedures that can at least assess the quality and completeness of submitted NIBRS data; second, developing methods and techniques to adjust for both item nonresponse (missing data fields within submitted records) and unit nonresponse (missing reporting units or agencies); and third, creating an estimation procedure capable of producing national incident-based statistics from the NIBRS data that are reported. The FY 2021 supplement is intended to validate and stress-test those components in practice, which is a critical step when transitioning from partial participation and uneven data submission patterns to reliable national estimates.

Administratively, the opportunity is listed as a continuation award with a cooperative agreement as the funding instrument, indicating substantial federal involvement compared with a standard grant. It falls under the Information and Statistics activity category and is associated with CFDA number 16.734. The funding opportunity number is O-BJS-2021-64001. The posting shows it was created on August 12, 2021 with an original closing date of August 17, 2021, consistent with an invited or limited-competition action rather than an open solicitation.

In terms of funding scale and expected awards, BJS anticipated making one award with an award ceiling of $1,000,000. Eligibility is described as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," which typically signals a targeted eligibility approach, commonly used for invitations to apply or for continuing work with an existing partner performing specialized statistical or technical tasks.

The stated statutory authority comes from section 302 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which authorizes BJS to make grants or enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with a broad range of entities, including public agencies, higher education institutions, private organizations, and private individuals, for the purpose of collecting and analyzing criminal justice statistics (34 U.S.C. 10132(c)(1)). In practical terms, this authority underpins BJS's ability to fund the methodological and statistical work needed to convert incident-based law enforcement data into quality-assured, nonresponse-adjusted, nationally representative measures.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as a one-year supplemental investment to test and refine an estimation framework for NIBRS-based national statistics, focusing on data quality assessment, nonresponse adjustment, and national estimation methods, with the aim of improving the reliability and usability of incident-based crime statistics during a period of evolving national reporting coverage.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics in the information and statistics sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2021 Invited to Apply - NCS-X NIBRS Estimation Project" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.734.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 12, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Aug 17, 2021. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for O BJS 2021 64001

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