Strong Response to First Gun Policy Research RFP

Our first call for proposals for scientific research on gun violence and gun policy has prompted a strong response from researchers across the United States.

The first submission period for letters of interest closed on February 4, 2019, with 248 letters submitted, including 8 dissertation award proposals.

The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research released its first request for proposals (RFP) in January, calling for research ideas that would improve understanding of gun use harms and benefits, and of strategies for reducing gun violence.

Collaborative Director Andrew Morral said the quality of the submissions received was very high.

"We received an astonishing number of excellent proposals, far more than we can request full proposals from. Clearly, there is enormous demand for funding on gun policy and gun violence prevention.

"We hope that applicants who are not invited for full proposals will consider submitting their ideas again in later cycles of funding."

All submissions are being independently assessed by two Ph.D. reviewers with relevant expertise. A second program-level review will then identify the small subset of applications from which collaborative staff will recommend requesting full proposals.

Finally, these recommendations will be discussed by the collaborative’s independent Research Advisory Committee, which will make final decisions on invitations to submit full proposals.

Applicants who submitted a letter of interest can expect to receive feedback from the collaborative in early March.

While the collaborative received proposals for $150 million in research, in this funding round the RFP will be able to award only up to $10 million in grant funding, including three or more dissertation support awards of $25,000.

This is the first of four annual grantmaking cycles currently planned. The next RFP is expected to be released in late 2019 or early 2020.