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FY 2026 OVW Research and Evaluation Initiative Areas of Study, Methodological Principles, and Required Appendices

Listed below are the Research and Evaluation (R&E) Initiative’s areas of study, methodological principles, and appendices that applicants are required to submit with their applications. If an applicant determines that a particular appendix is not relevant to their application, they can attach a file with a statement to that effect. Appendices do not count against the Proposal Narrative page limit. Appendices can be submitted as separate attachments or in consolidated files in JustGrants. The following documents will not be scored but failure to upload the documents or, if applicable, a statement that the appendix is not relevant to the application, may result in the application being removed from consideration.  

Areas of Study  

OVW is interested in funding research and evaluation that will contribute to knowledge in these six areas of study.  

  1. Justice: Ways the justice system can effectively pursue and achieve justice in cases involving VAWA crimes, with justice broadly understood to include safety and healing for victims, accountability for offenders, and procedural fairness for all.  
  2. Victims’ needs: How victimization and its aftermath affect people’s lives, and what victims need to cope, heal, and achieve safety and justice. 
  3. Access to services and justice: Where and to whom people go for help, and whether they can access justice and get services that are useful to them.  
  4. Impact: Short- and long-term impact of the criminal and civil justice systems’ responses, victim services, and other VAWA-funded interventions on victim safety and offender accountability. 
  5. Indicators of success: What success looks like and how to measure it—for victims pursuing safety, well-being, and justice; for offenders being held accountable for their violence; and for people who work with victims and offenders. 
  6. Promoting desistance and reducing recidivism: How to prevent people from continuing to use violence. 

Methodological Principles  

OVW will only support research methods that: 

  • are well-matched to the purpose of the research and build on existing evidence;  
  • uphold victim safety as the paramount objective, with the understanding that scientific progress is always subordinate to that objective;  
  • are likely to yield findings that have practical utility for victim services providers and justice system professionals;  
  • are developed collaboratively between researchers and practitioners;  
  • place as minimal a burden as possible on research participants;  
  • operate from a cogent theoretical framework; and  
  • have been approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) if they involve human subjects research. 

Required Appendices 

  1. Curriculum vitae or resumes of the Principal Investigator(s) and/or project lead, and key project partner(s).  
  1. Letters of commitment from organizations or agencies serving as partner entities and/or collaborating on the project, such as victim services organizations, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors’ offices, etc.: Letters of commitment must be dated and signed by the partnering entity’s Authorized Representative. Budget note regarding partner entities: In general, partners that will be receiving funds to carry out a portion of the award should be treated as subrecipients in the proposed budget, not contractors. For more information see 2 C.F.R. § 200.331 and the Application Companion Guide. 
  1. Proposed Project Staff, Affiliation, and Roles Form, which OVW uses to avoid conflicts of interest during the peer review process: Provide a list (to the extent known) of all proposed project staff members, including those affiliated with the applicant organization or any proposed subrecipient organization(s), any proposed consultant(s) and contractors (whether individuals or organizations), and any proposed members of an advisory board for the project (if applicable). The list should include: individual or organization name, title (if applicable), employer or other organizational affiliation, and roles and responsibilities proposed for the project. Ideally, applicants provide this appendix in a table format, i.e.  

Name and Title 

Employer / Affiliation 

Role on Proposed Project 

 

 

 

  1. Bibliography/references: This can be a stand-alone document or consolidated with the Proposal Narrative and will not count against the page limit.  
  1. Tools/instruments, questionnaires, tables/charts/graphs, or maps pertaining to the proposed project that are supplemental to such items included in the main body of the narrative. 
  1. Documentation of Research and Evaluation Independence and Integrity: To receive funds, the applicant must demonstrate research independence, including appropriate safeguards to ensure objectivity and integrity, both in this proposed project and as it may relate to the applicant’s other current or prior projects. This documentation should be an attachment to the application that addresses both a. and b. below. 
    1. For purposes of this NOFO, applicants must document research and evaluation independence and integrity by including, at a minimum, one of the following two items:  

      1. A specific assurance that the applicant has reviewed its proposal to identify any research integrity issues (including all Principal Investigators and subrecipients) and it has concluded that the design, conduct, or reporting of research and evaluation funded by OVW grants, cooperative agreements, or contracts will not be biased by any personal or financial conflict of interest on the part of its staff, consultants, and/or subrecipients responsible for the research and evaluation or on the part of the applicant organization.  

        OR

      2. A specific listing of actual or apparent conflicts of interest that the applicant has identified in relation to this proposal. These conflicts could be either personal (related to specific staff, consultants, and/or subrecipients) or organizational (related to the applicant or any subrecipient organization). Examples of potential conflict situations may include but are not limited to: those in which an investigator would be in a position to evaluate a spouse’s work product (actual conflict), or an investigator would be in a position to evaluate the work of a former or current colleague (potential apparent conflict). With regard to potential organizational conflicts of interest, as one example, generally an organization could not be given a grant to evaluate a project if that organization provided substantial prior technical assistance to that specific project or an entity implementing the project (whether funded by OVW or other sources), as the organization in such an instance would appear to be evaluating the effectiveness of its own prior work. The key is whether a reasonable person understanding all the facts would be able to have confidence that the results of any research or evaluation project are objective and reliable. Any outside personal or financial interest that casts doubt on the objectivity and reliability of an evaluation or research product is a problem and must be disclosed.
    2. In addition, applicants must address mitigation of possible research integrity concerns by including, at a minimum, one of the following two items: 

      1. If an applicant reasonably believes that no potential personal or organizational conflicts of interest exist, then the applicant must provide a brief narrative explanation of how and why it reached that conclusion. Applicants must also include an explanation of the specific procedures that the applicant will put in place to identify and eliminate (or, at the very least, mitigate) potential personal or financial conflicts of interest on the part of its staff, consultants, and/or subrecipients for this particular project, should that be necessary during the grant period. Documentation that may be helpful in this regard includes organizational codes of ethics/conduct or policies regarding organizational, personal, and financial conflicts of interest. 

        OR

      2. If the applicant has identified specific personal or organizational conflicts of interest in its proposal during this review, the applicant must propose a specific and robust mitigation plan to address conflicts noted above. At a minimum, the plan must include specific processes and procedures that the applicant will put in place to eliminate (or mitigate) potential personal or financial conflicts of interest on the part of its staff, consultants, and/or subrecipients for this particular project, should that be necessary during the grant period. Documentation that may be helpful in this regard could include organizational codes of ethics/conduct or policies regarding organizational, personal, and financial conflicts of interest. There is no guarantee that the plan will be accepted as proposed. Considerations in assessing research and evaluation independence and integrity include but are not limited to: the adequacy of the applicant’s efforts to identify factors that could affect the objectivity or integrity of the proposed staff and/or the organization in carrying out the research; and the adequacy of the applicant’s existing or proposed remedies to control any such factors. 
  1. Applicant disclosure of pending applications: Applicants must disclose whether they have pending applications for federally funded grants or subgrants that include requests for funding to support the same project being proposed under this NOFO and will cover identical cost items outlined in the budget narrative and worksheet in the application submitted under this NOFO. The disclosure must include both direct applications for federal funding (i.e., applications to federal agencies) and indirect applications for such funding (e.g., applications to state agencies that will subaward federal funds). 
  1. OVW seeks this information to help avoid any inappropriate duplication of funding. Leveraging multiple funding sources in a complementary manner to implement comprehensive programs or projects is encouraged and is not seen as inappropriate duplication. Applicants that have pending applications as described above are to provide the following information about pending applications submitted within the last 12 months: the federal or state funding agency, the NOFO name/project name, and the point of contact information at the applicable funding agency. 
  1. Applicants must include this information as a separate attachment, in a table format, with the file name “Disclosure of Pending Applications,” to their application. Applicants that do not have pending applications as described above are to include a statement to this effect in the separate attachment page (e.g., “[Applicant Name on SF-424] does not have pending applications submitted within the last 12 months for federally funded 23 grants or subgrants that include requests for funding to support the same project being proposed under this NOFO and will cover the identical cost items outlined in the budget narrative and worksheet in the application submitted under this NOFO.”). 
  1. Data archiving plan: OVW will require through special award conditions that data sets resulting in whole or in part from projects funded under this NOFO be prepared for archiving. Applications must include as an appendix a brief plan – labeled “Data Archiving Plan” – consistent with the instructions found DOJ's Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Data Archiving webpage. Data sets are to be submitted 90 days before the end of the project period unless the recipient receives different instructions from OVW. Please note that OVW will consider requests for exemptions from data archiving requirements post-award. 
  1. Human Subjects Protection paperwork: Documentation and forms related to IRB review can be found on NIJ's Human Subjects and Privacy Protection webpage. Note that final IRB approval is not required at the time an application is submitted. 
  1. Privacy Certificate: Visit NIJ's Confidentiality and Privacy Protections webpage for more information and a model privacy certificate.
Updated August 7, 2026