The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) — the research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — is the lead federal agency funding external research and development in the forensic sciences. R&D investments can lead to faster or more discriminatory methods to identify, capture, charge, and convict the true perpetrators of crime, which increases public safety and ensures that the innocent are not wrongly convicted. NIJ’s forensic science R&D portfolio spans a broad range, from fundamental research with the potential for forensic application, to the development of prototype devices, to the validation of novel instruments and methods.<br/>Forensic science is a collection of applied disciplines that draws from all branches of science. Nevertheless, forensic scientists most often find themselves tasked with the detection, collection, separation, and analysis of chemical and biological samples. Because of the unique circumstances of forensic evidence, there is an ongoing need for these analyses to be done on ever smaller, degraded or mixed samples. Balancing this is the need to ensure that the analytical methods applied to these challenging samples are rigorously validated and defensible in a courtroom context. These needs drive NIJ’s continuing R&D investments in analytical chemistry for forensic application.<br/>Since 2009, the year of publication of an influential National Academy of Sciences report, <i>Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward</i>, NIJ has funded over 500 forensic science R&D grants, for a total of over $200M. A large portion of this portfolio, particularly in controlled substances, forensic toxicology, forensic biology, and trace chemical and materials analysis, has been directly served by analytical chemistry research. Advances in mass spectrometry, separations, applied spectroscopies, microscopy and microfluidics, have already yielded or show promise for forensic application, and NIJ anticipates continued interest in advancing these technologies and others for forensic application. In this effort, NIJ strives to engage the analytical chemistry community to bring novel perspectives to solving forensic problems.

Forensic applications of analytical chemistry: Funding programs at the National Institute of Justice

2019 Fall National Meeting

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