Purposethis award will support the development and dissemination of technically sound forensic science standards in digital evidence (e.g., computer hard drives/cell phones/audio/video) that will be…

Purposethis award will support the development and dissemination of technically sound forensic science standards in digital evidence (e.g., computer hard drives/cell phones/audio/video) that will be made freely available for the public.activities to be performedthe award will enable the recipient to provide travel support for digital evidence subject matter experts to participate in three in-person meetings focusing on the development of digital evidence standards. The funding will also support swgde partnering with NW3C for provide administrative support, website support and project management support to enhance the production of digital evidence standards.expected outcomesthe recipient will receive funding to support travel costs for subject matter experts to participate in the standards process and administrative support for managing tasks inside of swgde which allows for more impactful standards to be produced. The recipient will be able to transition administrative tasks, currently performed by digital evidence experts, to administrative personnel allowing the digital evidence experts to focus specifically on the technical challenges of writing technical standards and not the administrative activities. This realignment of duties and funding of more subject matter experts to participate in the standards process will increase in production of digital evidence standards.intended beneficiariesthe intended beneficiaries include forensic science service providers and the public. Both will benefit from the additional consensus-based forensic science standards in digital evidence being available for the estimated thousands of digital evidence laboratories across the country free of charge. This access will result in higher quality work being performed by digital evidence laboratories in the united states and presented in criminal cases. The adoption of these standards in everyday practice, can improve consistency within and across digital evidence laboratories, ensure confidence in the accuracy, reliability, and reproducibility of their technical results, and positively increase the impact of admissibility and expert testimony in courts of law.subrecipient activities (if applicable)NW3C will serve as a subrecipient and provide administrative support for supporting swgde's standard's operations, website support to enhance dissemination and tracking the use of standards, and overall project management support executing the activities under this award.