Social Science & Law

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

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Primary applicants may submit one application in response to this NOFO.

Executive Summary
Priority Region: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) 

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) announces an open competition for organizations to document the DPRK’s human rights abuses and counter regime influence operations globally. The program will challenge the DPRK's information monopoly by safely documenting real-time information on human rights conditions and other on-the-ground realities throughout the DPRK. 

The DPRK maintains one of the world's most repressive information environments, creating a dual threat that this program is designed to address. First, the regime exercises total control overdomestic media and has criminalized access to outside information, deliberately masking severe human rights abuses from both its citizens and the international community. Second, the regime conducts sophisticated external influence operations that distort international events, vilify the United States and its allies, and manipulate global perceptions—particularly targeting youth audiences—by falsely attributing the country's internal suffering to U.S. policies and sanctions rather than regime governance. 

By documenting vital information from inside the DPRK, the program will inform U.S. policymakers and drive international advocacy campaigns. Furthermore, it will leverage defector voices across modern digital platforms to inform global audiences—particularly youth demographics targeted by foreign propaganda—about the reality of the DPRK regime, reinforcing U.S. leadership in defending democratic principles and human rights. This program directly advances the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) to protect America from destructive propaganda and influence operations, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. It further supports DRL's commitment under the Department of State's FY 2026–2030 Agency Strategic Plan (ASP) to promote freedom of expression and access to information and ideas in highly restrictive settings.

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Co PIs: Z. Chen (Public Health) and T. Saljuqi (Surgery)

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You  may submit  only one  application  for this NOFO.  If  a  project  will  be  carried  out  by two  or more  entities (project  partners),  only one  entity may submit  the  application.  The  other entities (project  partners) should  be  proposed  as subrecipients rather than  co-applicants.  Read  the  Application  Resource  Guide  for  additional  information  on  subawards.   

Purpose
The  Office  of  Justice  Programs (OJP)  is committed  to  advancing  work that  furthers the  U.S.  Department  of  Justice’s (DOJ)  mission  to  keep  our country safe  and  secure  and uphold  the  rule  of law  and  protect  the  rights of  American  citizens.  OJP  provides federal  leadership,  funding,  and other critical  resources to  directly support  law  enforcement,  combat  violent  crime,  protect  American  children,  provide  services to  American  crime  victims,  and  address public safety challenges, including  human  trafficking  and  the  opioid  crisis.  

This is a notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the BJA FY 2026 Kevin and Avonte Program: Reducing Injury and Death of Missing Individuals with Dementia and Developmental Disabilities. This opportunity supports public safety efforts to reduce deaths and injuries of individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, or developmental disabilities, such as autism, who, due to their condition, wander from safe environments. This program provides funding to law enforcement, other public safety agencies, and health care agencies to implement locative technologies that track missing individuals. It also provides funding to such agencies and partnering nonprofit organizations to develop or operate programs to prevent wandering, increase safety for vulnerable individuals, and facilitate rescues.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding. Applicants may be included as a subgrantee on other proposals.

Executive Summary
This proposal will support cooperation between the State Department and an implementing partner that will bring together stakeholders from governments, academia, civil society, industry, and faith-based organizations to engage in academic research, events, and other activities that: advance a human-centered approach to emerging technology which respects the inherent dignity and unalienable natural rights of all individuals, develop intellectual understandings of the dignity of the human person and unalienable rights, and counter authoritarian influences that undermine fundamental freedoms. While advancing a pro-innovation, industry-led, multistakeholder approach to the development of technology, including AI, the program will foster cooperation between the implementing partners and other stakeholders to ensure technology promotes human flourishing and the common good. The program will also identify and counter malign authoritarian influences that threaten fundamental freedoms, including freedom of religion or belief, and human dignity, with a particular focus on how authoritarian institutions attempt to influence or hamper faith-based institutions. Program implementers may include academic institutions, civil society groups, industry, and religious organizations working in close collaboration to produce research, promote best practices, conduct public education campaigns, engage in advocacy, and otherwise promote technology development grounded in natural law, human dignity, and the common good.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding. Applicants may be included as a subgrantee on other proposals.

Executive Summary
This program will document and analyze democratic backsliding in Europe as it relates to mass migration, with a particular emphasis on research regarding the human rights and social impacts of the mass migration crisis in Europe.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding.

Executive Summary
This program will help responsible businesses counter unfair competition from production models relying on forced labor, worker exploitation, and other violations or abuses of internationally recognized labor rights. The program will also promote worker upskilling by working with leading foreign companies in critical industries to develop and strengthen private- sector workforce development practices and programs that support resilient, rights-respecting supply chains. 

Through a phased, evidence-based approach, the program will first conduct research and engage foreign companies and other relevant stakeholders to identify workforce-related barriers to investment and expansion, assess promising workforce development practices, identify effective private-sector upskilling models in critical industries, and develop recommendations for targeted interventions. Informed by these findings, the program will then provide subawards to qualified implementing partners to address identified gaps through activities such as strengthening partnerships between foreign companies and U.S. workforce stakeholders, adapting and piloting employer-led workforce development approaches, developing and implementing worker upskilling initiatives for companies operating in critical industries, facilitating technical exchanges and peer learning, providing practical guidance and technical assistance, and strengthening worker voice and engagement. 

Through these efforts, this program will seek to reduce workforce-related barriers to responsible foreign investment, expand opportunities for American workers, promote workforce upskilling and responsible production practices among companies in critical industries, and advance investment and production models grounded in innovation, productivity, workforce skills, and respect for internationally recognized labor rights.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding. Applicants may be included as a subgrantee on other proposals.

Executive Summary

Priority Region: WHA - Target countries include Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico (applicants should select one or more of the target countries based on organizational capacity and expertise)

Transnational organized criminal groups and narcoterrorists perpetrate human rights abuses against civilian communities across Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, creating a humanitarian crisis with direct consequences for U.S. national security. The United States has designated multiple criminal organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), recognizing their involvement in kidnappings, extortion, murder, human trafficking, and sexual violence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio identified transnational criminal organizations, which often are fueled by narcotrafficking, as the region's most urgent security threat. These abuses destabilize the region and generate billions in illicit revenue that funds further corruption and violence. 

Judicial systems already facing severe capacity constraints are vulnerable to corruption, enabling impunity for organized crime abuses. Across Latin America, drug cartels have assassinated multiple municipal leaders, prosecutors, judges, and port personnel. Criminal organizations systematically target justice officials to maintain impunity, undermining the rule of law. This impunity perpetuates cycles of violence, as criminal organizations operate without fear of prosecution, creating an environment where human rights abuses continue unchecked. 

To respond to these issues, DRL seeks proposals for 1-2 programs that aim to strengthen accountability for human rights abuses committed by organized crime groups in Latin America. Resulting programs will improve how civic organizations document violations and collect evidence of human rights abuses for use in accountability mechanisms, expand community access to protection and legal support services, analyze how abuses drive mass and illegal migration, and advance judicial security, transparency, and reform through strategic advocacy. Through these efforts, the program will reduce impunity for organized crime- related human rights abuses and increase protection for affected communities and human rights defenders, thereby increasing security in the Western Hemisphere.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1

Limiting Language
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding.

Executive Summary
While South Africa is considered one of Africa’s most developed countries, it continues to experience significant levels of violence and crime, including crimes affecting Afrikaner and other minority communities across the country. These minority populations face ongoing threats to their safety and security within a broader context of elevated crime rates. Minority communities experience distinct vulnerabilities that warrant focused attention and documentation, including lack of policing resources, discriminatory government policies, and violent rhetoric. 

This proposed program will seek to document hateful rhetoric and violent acts against minority communities, assess access to justice and law enforcement protection, as well as research widespread violence affecting both minorities and the broader population in South Africa. The implementing partner will conduct conflict sensitive research and data collection to create a 3 comprehensive record of violence affecting Afrikaner and other South African minority populations in line with international standards and develop recommendations for how to improve the law enforcement situation to ensure equal protection.

Apply to Internal Competition // Limit: 2 (one tenured scholar and one untenured scholar) // Tickets Available: 2

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University presidents may nominate one tenured and one untenured scholar. Untenured includes both tenure-track faculty who have not yet achieved tenure, and those who are not on a tenure track.

Program Overview
Since 2015, the Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program has supported high-caliber scholarship and research in the social sciences and humanities that address important and enduring issues confronting our society.

The 2026 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows marked the third year of the program’s focus on building a body of research focused on political polarization. The Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York, committed up to $18 million to this effort over the three-year period, helping Americans understand how and why our society has become so polarized and what can be done to strengthen social cohesion. Political polarization is characterized by, but not limited to, factors such as threats to free speech, the decline of civil discourse, disagreement over basic facts, and a lack of mutual understanding and collaboration. Each fellow receives a grant of up to $200,000 to support their two-year research project, enabling them to devote significant time and resources to their work.

For the next three years, beginning with the 2027 cohort, we are broadening the focus beyond domestic perspectives to explicitly ask what the U.S. can learn from the experience of polarization in other countries. We are seeking proposals that address the relationship between populism and polarization, how other democracies have resisted or reversed polarization, and the conditions that determine whether polarization dissipates or accelerates into systemic violence. These conditions may include but are not limited to civic culture, social cohesion, access to information and a healthy information environment, economic opportunity, trust in and the effective functioning of public institutions, and the rule of law. A few of the things we would like to learn from the next cohort of fellows are:

• What has been the relationship between populism and polarization in other countries?
• How have some countries managed to avoid polarization?
• What can we learn from countries that have stepped back from polarization, such as South Africa, Colombia, and Northern Ireland?
• Under what conditions has polarization escalated into political violence?
• Under what conditions has polarization taken root/accelerated/declined in other countries?

The criteria for selection prioritize the originality and potential impact of the proposal, as well as the capacity to communicate the findings to a broad audience. The fellows are selected by a distinguished panel of jurors, chaired by Dame Louise Richardson, president of the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, and comprising scholars and academic and intellectual leaders from some of the nation’s most prominent educational institutions, foundations, and scholarly societies.

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is a continuation of the mission of the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911, to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace.

Eligibility
The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program is open only to citizens or legal residents of the United States who have been nominated by the head of an institution designated by the Andrew Carnegie Foundation. Candidates must have a PhD, hold a terminal degree, or be a high-level professional working outside of academia. Along with presidents, chancellors, and provosts of universities, nominators include heads of independent research institutes and learned societies, leaders of some of the nation’s preeminent think tanks, and directors of academic presses, as well as editors of leading newspapers and magazines. All nominators must include in their letter of nomination two to three sentences on the institution’s internal candidate selection process. Individuals may not apply for the Fellows Program via self-nomination. 2027 begins a new three-year cycle of the fellowship. If you were a candidate in 2026 or any previous year, you are eligible to apply again — only once — between 2027 and 2029.

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program prohibits a fellowship winner from accepting a fellowship of equal caliber or at a comparable level of funding that overlaps the same timeline as the Carnegie fellowship, especially awards that have specific time requirements. However, smaller grants and project support are acceptable on a case-by-case basis.

No Applicants // Limit: 1 // Tickets Available: 1 

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NHTSA will only accept one (1) application per eligible applicant during each application phase. Applicants that were not selected during an earlier phase may submit a revised application during a subsequent phase, provided the application continues to meet all eligibility requirements. (see Section II ‘Eligibility’).

Executive Summary
NHTSA’s new ITSE grant program seeks to support applicants who can develop, demonstrate, and evaluate new, innovative traffic safety enforcement projects or innovative enhancements to existing countermeasures that address risky driving behaviors contributing to the greatest number of crashes. The focus areas for this project are speeding/aggressive driving, drug or alcohol-impaired driving, occupant protection and distracted driving. The program’s objectives are to: 1) develop innovative traffic safety enforcement programs that demonstrate effectiveness by reducing the number of motor vehicle crashes due to one or more of the subject risky driving behaviors; and 2) ensure the traffic safety enforcement programs are repeatable and scalable for use by law enforcement throughout the United States. 

Each section of this notice contains information and instructions relevant to the application process for the Innovative Traffic Safety Enforcement (ITSE) Grant Program. NHTSA recommends that applicants read this notice in its entirety to have the information they need to submit eligible and competitive applications.

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Limiting Language 
Applicants are only allowed to submit one proposal per organization. If more than one proposal is submitted from an organization, all proposals from that institution will be considered ineligible for funding.

Executive Summary
Investing in the protection and well-being of children and families is a proven strategy for ensuring American security, solidifying American strength, and increasing American prosperity for generations to come. While the negative consequences of international parental child abduction (IPCA) on abducted children and left-behind parents are generally acknowledged, the issue has only received piecemeal attention in scientific literature. The ensuing research gap affects the ability of service providers, advocacy organizations, and governmental authorities to provide needed services to adequately support affected children and their families in the United States. 

As the U.S. Central Authority for the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (“Convention”), the Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues is responsible for monitoring and implementing all aspects of the Convention in the United States as well as handling cases involving children abducted to and from countries that are not treaty partners under the Convention. 

Through this cooperative agreement, the Office of Children’s Issues seeks to fund one research study whose goal is to better understand how IPCA affects abducted children and their left-behind parents in order to better support impacted individuals, their families, and their communities in the United States.