OVW Fiscal Year 2022 Research and Evaluation Solicitation | O OVW 2022 171120

Opportunity Information: Apply for O OVW 2022 171120

The OVW Fiscal Year 2022 Research and Evaluation Solicitation, offered by the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), is a discretionary grant opportunity focused on building practical, credible evidence about what works to prevent and respond to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (often grouped as "VAWA crimes"). The central idea is to fund research and evaluation projects that help communities and OVW-funded programs make better decisions, improve services for victims, and strengthen strategies for holding offenders accountable. By investing in studies that test and measure real-world interventions, the program aims to move more of the field toward approaches that are demonstrably effective and away from practices that are untested or only supported by anecdotal experience.

This opportunity is part of OVW's Research and Evaluation (RampE) Initiative, which is designed to support partnerships between researchers and practitioners. In practice, that means projects are expected to connect academic or research expertise with on-the-ground agencies and systems that deliver services or carry out justice responses, such as victim service providers, law enforcement, courts, or coordinated community response teams. OVW emphasizes that it wants research that can directly inform practice, so the most competitive projects tend to be those where the research questions are shaped by real operational needs, and where findings can be translated into guidance, tools, or lessons that OVW grantees can apply.

OVW signals openness to a broad range of rigorous methods, including qualitative studies, mixed-method designs, quasi-experimental approaches, and fully experimental designs. That flexibility matters because programs addressing VAWA crimes vary widely across communities, and ethical or practical constraints can make randomized experiments difficult in some settings. Even so, the overall expectation is that funded work will be methodologically sound, clearly designed to answer meaningful questions, and capable of producing findings that can strengthen the national evidence base about victim safety, offender accountability, and system effectiveness.

A key feature of the solicitation is prioritization. OVW notes that it has limited funds available for research and evaluation, so it is specifically interested in topics where stronger evidence would help OVW grantees use federal funds in the most effective way. In other words, the program is not just supporting research for research's sake; it is targeting knowledge gaps that, if filled, could change how programs are designed, funded, and implemented across the VAWA landscape. The intended outcome is both immediate and long-term: better alignment of current work with proven practices, plus stronger capacity in the field to evaluate emerging or promising approaches and determine whether they truly deliver better outcomes.

From an administrative standpoint, this is a grant (not a contract) categorized under Law, Justice, and Legal Services, with CFDA number 16.026. The funding opportunity number is O-OVW-2022-171120. OVW anticipated making about 8 awards, with an award ceiling of $450,000 per award. The solicitation was created on April 21, 2022, and the original closing date was June 17, 2022, placing it within the FY 2022 funding cycle.

Eligibility is broad and includes state, county, and city or township governments; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; and nonprofit organizations, including both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3) entities (excluding institutions of higher education for the nonprofit categories listed). This wide eligibility reflects OVW's emphasis on researcher-practitioner partnerships, since applicants may come from either side of that partnership (for example, a university research center teaming with a community-based victim service organization, or a government agency partnering with external researchers).

Overall, the solicitation is aimed at producing actionable knowledge about interventions and system responses to VAWA crimes, strengthening the evidence base for programs funded by OVW, and helping communities apply limited resources in ways that produce measurable improvements in victim services, safety outcomes, and accountability strategies.

• The Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "OVW Fiscal Year 2022 Research and Evaluation Solicitation" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.026.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 21, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 17, 2022. (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 $450,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 8 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

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