FY 2023 National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) | O BJS 2023 171664

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJS 2023 171664

The FY 2023 National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) is a discretionary funding opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, administered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). It continues a long-running effort to strengthen the quality, completeness, and usability of criminal history records and related reporting systems that support public safety, fair administration of justice, and lawful background check processes. The program is framed within OJP priorities that emphasize advancing civil rights and racial equity, increasing access to justice, supporting victims and people impacted by the justice system, strengthening community safety, addressing evolving threats, and building trust between law enforcement and communities.

For FY 2023, BJS highlights two primary priorities for how applicants should use NCHIP funds. The first is improving the reporting of dispositions, meaning the final outcomes of criminal cases such as convictions, acquittals, dismissals, and other resolutions that occur after arrest and charging. Disposition reporting is a core data quality issue in criminal history systems because an arrest record without a final court outcome can be misleading, can create avoidable barriers for individuals, and can reduce the reliability of criminal history checks used for employment, licensing, housing decisions, and justice system decision-making. The second priority is improving reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) of individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms for mental health-related reasons. In practice, this focuses on ensuring that qualifying records are accurately identified, properly transmitted, and kept up to date so that NICS checks have the information needed to prevent prohibited firearm transfers while also supporting accurate decision-making and reducing erroneous denials.

The award mechanism for this opportunity is a cooperative agreement, which generally means recipients should expect more ongoing involvement from the federal program office than with a standard grant, such as coordination on deliverables, technical requirements, reporting expectations, or project milestones. The funding activity category is listed as Information and Statistics, reflecting the program's emphasis on records systems, data quality, reporting pipelines, and the infrastructure needed to ensure criminal justice information is timely and accurate.

Eligible applicants are state governments and federally recognized Native American tribal governments. The program is associated with CFDA number 16.554. The funding opportunity number is O-BJS-2023-171664. The notice was created on March 22, 2023, and the original application closing date was May 24, 2023. BJS anticipated making about 40 awards, and the maximum award amount (award ceiling) is listed as $70,000,000.

Overall, this opportunity is aimed at helping states and eligible tribes modernize and improve the integrity of their criminal history record systems, with particular emphasis in FY 2023 on closing gaps between arrests and final case outcomes and strengthening the flow of legally relevant mental health prohibitor records into NICS. These improvements are intended to support both public safety goals and fairness goals by making criminal history information more complete, more accurate, and more actionable for the justice system and lawful background check processes.

• The Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics in the information and statistics sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY 2023 National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.554.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 22, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 24, 2023. (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 $70,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 40 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized).

Apply for O BJS 2023 171664

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