Cooperative Agreement 04FC601886

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (CFDA 47.075) Project Grant award provides $170,000 to support a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship investigating how forensic anthropologists can align diverse cultural requirements for mortuary care with the application of medical and scientific forensic standards in post-atrocity contexts. The key research objectives are: 1) to explore the integration of qualitative data, such as oral histories and witness testimony,...

The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), under a $111,000 award from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants program (CFDA 16.560), will conduct a detailed analysis of human pelvic growth and development. The research aims to provide new knowledge and analytical tools to improve age and sex estimation from subadult skeletal remains, a critical capability for forensic anthropologists. UNR will leverage two virtual anthropology databases, the...

The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNM HSC) was awarded a $999,558 Project Grant by the Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Program (CFDA 16.044) to close cold, unidentified persons cases. The primary activities include conducting inventory, anthropological analyses, and DNA analyses, including forensic genetic genealogy, on 198-205 cold cases with human remains stored at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. The project aims to...

The Ohio State University was awarded a $818,054 Project Grant from the National Institute of Justice under the Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Program (CFDA 16.044) to conduct experimental research on skeletal trauma and fracture characteristics. The research aims to quantify the effects of tissue quality, loading rates, and other variables on bone fracture patterns to improve forensic interpretations and event reconstruction within the criminal justice system. The award will...

This federal Project Grant award, valued at $823,669, was provided by the National Institute of Justice under the Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Program (CFDA 16.044). The grant aims to conduct research to optimize sample collection and processing strategies for forensically relevant biomolecules in bone, in order to improve human identification, post-mortem interval estimation, age-at-death determination, and ancestry estimation. Key project activities include identifying the...

The Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZ DPS) has been awarded a $697,186 Project Grant under the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program (CFDA 16.050). The grant will fund two DNA forensic scientist positions at AZ DPS over a three-year period to increase the capacity for DNA testing and analysis of Arizona's missing persons, unidentified human remains, and family reference samples. The goal is to analyze 144...

The Coconino County Office of the Medical Examiner was awarded a $500,000 Project Grant from the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program (CFDA #16.050). The grant will fund initiatives to improve the reporting, transportation, processing, and identification of missing persons and unidentified human remains cases within Coconino County, Arizona, and on tribal lands such as the Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe. Key activities...

This $1,000,000 Project Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program (CFDA 16.050) will fund a statewide initiative in Pennsylvania to reduce the number of missing persons (MP) and unidentified human remains (UHR) cases. The key products and services to be delivered include: Surveying county and state agencies to inventory MP and UHR cases, assess case status and needs, and prioritize...

The New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (NYC OCME) received a $500,000 Project Grant award from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program (CFDA 16.050) to enhance identification efforts for long-term unidentified persons (UP) cases in New York City. The funding will enable the NYC OCME to compile case information, update relevant databases, employ advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic...

This three-year $295,671 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences program will support research and training activities at the University of Missouri aimed at validating patterns of bone functional adaptation in living humans. The principal investigator will analyze computed tomography scan data from living individuals to investigate relationships between muscle size, bone strength in different body regions, and self-reported activity...