REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
Gun Violence Prevention Research
The Fund for a Safer Future, a project of the New Venture Fund, is pleased to announce this request for proposals to support research that will help answer the question: What works to prevent gun violence?
Background
Gun violence takes a serious toll in the United States, with over 110,000 Americans injured or killed by firearms every year. Firearm deaths continue to be a significant and growing public health problem in the United States. In 2020, the CDC has reported that 79% of all homicides and 53% of all suicides involved firearms. These rates are the highest recorded in 25 years. These data also find widening racial and ethnic disparities in firearm injury and death, with the greatest increase among non-white groups.
The Fund for a Safer Future is a donor collaborative committed to achieving effective public policies to reduce gun injuries and deaths, including homicides, suicides, and accidental/unintentional shootings. The Fund supports local, state, and national-level projects to inform and advance evidence-based policy reform. Expanding research to inform the prevention of gun violence is a core priority of the Fund.
The Fund is announcing this competitive funding opportunity for academic institutions and researchers to support projects that will inform the policy and practice of gun violence prevention. The fundamental goal of this funding is to produce applied research within the next three years that can be used to advance the development and/or implementation of gun violence prevention policies or strategies.
Grant Awards
The Fund will support projects with a total budget of between $25,000 and $250,000 that will result in peer-reviewed, published articles within three years.
Eligibility
Non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, and individuals associated with institutions of higher education are eligible to apply. Please note that primary investigators who currently have an active grant from Fund for a Safer Future are not invited to apply, though there is no restriction on applications from affiliated institutions or researchers.
Research Priorities
Eligible projects are those that can advance the development and/or implementation of gun violence prevention policy and practice within the next three years.
The following research topics are of particular interest:
- Research that evaluates specific gun violence prevention policies, including their implementation and enforcement, to understand their effects on rates of firearm injury and death and their potential for inequitable impacts in different populations (e.g., criminal justice outcomes);
- Research on risk factors for fatal and non-fatal shootings, including prior criminal involvement, history of domestic abuse, mental illness, and other risk factors such as alcohol and substance abuse;
- Participatory action research with communities most impacted by gun violence that evaluates policies and strategies for reducing gun violence in communities;
- Research on implementation of evidence-informed community violence intervention strategies, including those factors that support robust implementation, barriers to robust implementation, etc.;
- Research on risk and resilience factors associated with community gun violence and its prevention, including factors at the individual, interpersonal, family, and community levels;
- Research that evaluates laws and policies designed to impact supply side factors, such as gun dealer licensing laws, and the impact of these laws on outcomes such as crime gun export rates, time-to-crime rates, straw purchasing, and theft from gun stores;
- Research on the characteristics of firearm suicide events, and evaluation of the effectiveness of policies and interventions for firearm suicide prevention;
- Research on the benefits and costs of policies and strategies directed to lawful firearm owners to promote household and community safety, including firearm safety training, practices for firearm transfer, firearm storage practices, and public carrying of firearms; and
- Comparative analyses that draw on the variation in city, state, or regional policies and programs to produce actionable data about their impact.
How to Apply:
Applicants should submit a brief (up to 3 pages) letter of intent (LOI) no later than Friday, September 9, 2022 outlining the proposed project. The LOI should address the following questions:
- What question(s) will the project seek to answer? How will it build on and differ from existing knowledge on this topic?
- What are the expected impacts for this project? For example:
- How will the project advance the field of gun violence prevention?
- How will the project develop evidence about approaches to reducing inequitable outcomes in firearm injuries?
- How will the project seek to understand solutions for gun violence prevention among communities and groups most affected by this problem? How will the results inform the development or implementation of specific gun violence prevention policies particularly equitable development, implementation, or enforcement of policies?
- What is the proposed research methodology? If engaging communities or groups directly affected by this gun violence, what is your approach to centering these perspectives in your methodology?
- What is the expected completion date?
- What is the budget for the project?
- How will you disseminate the results? And to whom?
- Are there other funders for the project? Do you have any proposals pending or do you plan to submit other proposals to support all or a portion of the project?
- How will the project address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion or incorporate an equity lens into the analysis?
- What are the qualifications and experience of the proposed research team?
- How will the project expand and diversify the pool of researchers working in the field of gun violence prevention?
LOIs will be reviewed by a research advisory group, who will evaluate the LOI based on the responses to these questions. Selected applicants will be invited to submit full proposals. Note that the project budgets may include up to 15% in indirect costs.
Applicants will receive a response to their LOIs by Friday, September 30, with full proposals due no later than Monday, October 31, 2022.
Full proposals should include:
- Executive summary (1-2 pages);
- Project narrative (up to 10 pages, exclusive of references), including the research question(s) to be addressed, how the proposed project would address them, key relevant challenges to the project and the strategies to address the challenges, and plans for dissemination of findings;
- Please be sure to include as many details regarding the planned methodology as possible
- Description of the organization, including its background, purpose, objectives, and experience in the area for which funds are sought;
- Itemized project budget with narrative, current and pending funding sources for the proposed project, amount of funds requested, the proposed use, and the time period over which funds will be expended. Please make sure to include in your budget the costs associated to comply with our Open Access Policy;
- Names and qualifications of people involved in the project; and please address the following question specifically:
- What are you doing to ensure that a diversity of racial, ethnic, and gender identity perspectives are reflected in your project?
- Board members, their titles, outside affiliations, and telephone numbers;
- Organizational expenses and income for previous, current, and coming fiscal year;
- Audited financial statements and Internal Revenue Service Form 990 plus attachments for the most recently completed fiscal year;
- Internal Revenue Service verification that the organization is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization and qualifies as a public charity as defined in IRS Code section509 (a)(1), (2), or (3). A copy of the IRS tax-exempt determination letter must accompany the proposal.
The expected start date for the project should be around January 1, 2023 with an expected completion date within three years of the start date.
Applications will be considered based on the following criteria:
- Likelihood that project will yield significant, unbiased information relevant to the understanding of gun violence prevention
- Relevance to priority research questions
- Experience of research team in gun violence prevention research, or similar relevant research
- Likelihood that the team will be able to successfully complete the proposed research with the funds requested in the time frame proposed
- Budget
Contact information:
Letters of intent should be submitted electronically to Alejandro Albanez at the New Venture Fund alejandro.albanez@arabellaadvisors.com. Please contact info@fundforasaferfuture.org with any questions about the RFP.
Date issued: Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Date extended: Thursday, August 25, 2022.