Cooperative Agreement 70NANB19H071

The Alameda County Sheriff's Office Crime Laboratory will utilize a $386,800 grant award from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance under the Paul Coverdell Forensic Sciences Improvement Grant Program to purchase specialized firearms 3D high-capacity imaging and analysis systems and an associated warranty. The laboratory will employ a patented hardware platform and fifteen cartridge case scanning tray capable of scanning multiple calibers of...

This $746,866 federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants program (CFDA 16.560) will fund a comprehensive, multiphasic study to characterize the emerging forensic discipline of hand image comparison. The key products and services to be delivered under this 3-year award include: Establishing a Hand Comparison Working Group (HAND-WG) to provide expert input on the study's approaches Conducting a survey to...

This $128,425 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (CFDA 16.742 - Paul Coverdell Forensic Sciences Improvement Grant Program) will support the Travis County Sheriff's Office (TCSO) Forensic Services Division in Texas. The funding will be used to purchase and establish a firearm test firing station near the TCSO Forensic Services Division, enabling them to test fire all seized and found guns brought in as evidence. This will allow TCSO to promptly...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), under the NIJ Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants program (CFDA 16.560), provides $872,282 to Noblis, Inc., a nonprofit research organization, to conduct a comprehensive study on the accuracy, efficacy, and reproducibility of muzzle-to-target distance determinations using gunshot residue (GSR) analysis by practicing forensic examiners. The study aims to assist in the standardization of GSR distance...

This federal Project Grant award of $556,572 from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) under the NIJ Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants program (CFDA 16.560) supports the development of an in-situ method for the detection and confirmatory identification of gunshot residue (GSR) particles on common substrates, including fabrics. The primary goals are to: 1) Develop a fast fluorescence mapping and Raman microspectroscopy method to detect and identify both organic and inorganic...

This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Justice (CFDA 16.560 - National Institute of Justice Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants) provides $299,344 to The University of Central Florida Board of Trustees to develop a protocol for obtaining the quantitative elemental profile of tire rubber, initiate a database of tire rubber elemental compositions, and identify the source of skid marks based on elemental analysis. The project aims to advance forensic...

This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Justice (CFDA 16.560 - National Institute of Justice Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants) provides $399,437.00 to Iowa State University of Science and Technology to develop a semi-empirical kinetics model for determining the time-since-deposition of latent fingerprints. The researchers aim to rigorously establish a reliable method to estimate when a fingerprint was deposited at a crime scene, which can help link suspects to...

The National Institute of Justice awarded a $392,196 Project Grant under the Forensics Training and Technical Assistance Program (CFDA 16.044) to RTI International. The goal of this 24-month project is to develop a software platform for automating and improving the reliability of colorimetric drug testing, which is a commonly used but limited technique in forensic science. Phase 1 will involve generating test images and defining optimal analysis parameters, while Phase 2 will incorporate machine...

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded a $630,560 Project Grant to Jensen Hughes, Inc. under the NIJ Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants program (CFDA 16.560). The goal of this 2-year grant, starting January 1, 2025, is to improve the identification of fire patterns using advanced sensing and statistical analysis/machine learning techniques. The research will systematically characterize fire effects from thermal exposure and soot deposition experiments, and develop...

The University of Illinois was awarded a $567,920 Project Grant from the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice to develop new subadult dental age estimation methods under the program "National Institute of Justice Research, Evaluation, and Development Project Grants." Through this award, the University will evaluate four commonly used dental age estimation methods on a contemporary U.S. dataset to assess accuracy, reliability, and usability....