The Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grants Program (the Coverdell Program) awards grants to states and units of local government to help improve the quality and timeliness of forensic science and medical examiner/coroner services.
A state or unit of local government that receives a Coverdell grant must use the grant for one or more of these six purposes:
- To carry out all or a substantial part of a program intended to improve the quality and timeliness of forensic science or medical examiner/coroner services in the state, including those services provided by laboratories operated by the state and those operated by units of local government within the state.
- To eliminate a backlog in the analysis of forensic science evidence, including, among other things, a backlog with respect to firearms examination, latent prints, toxicology, controlled substances, forensic pathology, questioned documents, and trace evidence.
- To train, assist, and employ forensic laboratory personnel, as needed, to eliminate such a backlog.
- To address emerging forensic science issues (such as statistics, contextual bias, and uncertainty of measurement) and emerging forensic science technology (such as high throughput automation, statistical software, and new types of instrumentation).
- To educate and train forensic pathologists.
- To fund medicolegal death investigation systems to facilitate the accreditation of medical examiner and coroner offices and the certification of medicolegal death investigators.
Important Note: Historically, Congress has appropriated funding to help the forensic science community address the specific challenges crime laboratories are confronting related to the proliferation of opioids and synthetic drugs. To address these issues, BJA calculates this percentage annually, based on the amount appropriated, targeting a certain percentage of funds it plans to allocate to specifically target the challenges that opioids and synthetic drugs have brough to the forensic science community and articulates this percentage in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). More information can be found on this Coverdell website under Program Requirements.
Why This Matters
The Coverdell Program assists forensic science laboratories and medical examiner/coroner’s offices to improve their services that are often crucial to the outcome of criminal cases. This program provides flexibility in funding a wide-ranging set of activities performed by approximately 400 publicly funded forensic laboratories in the United States and its territories.
The Coverdell Program supports forensic scientists to receive needed training to comply with certification requirements, as well as for forensic science service provider facilities to obtain and retain accreditation. It provides support to smaller jurisdictions to acquire current technology that they otherwise could not afford and to larger jurisdictions to meet continually growing demands. It supports laboratories in modernizing and maintaining needed analytical equipment and instrumentation. Moreover, the Coverdell Program provides laboratories and medical examiners/coroners with resources to battle the escalating opioid and synthetic drug epidemic.
Key Definitions
Specific forensic definitions applicable to the Coverdell Program are as follows:
- Backlog: A backlog in the analysis of forensic science evidence exists if such evidence:
- Has been stored in a laboratory, medical examiner's office, coroner's office, law enforcement storage facility, or medical facility.
- Has not been subjected to all appropriate forensic testing because of a lack of resources or personnel.
- Forensic Science Laboratory: Any state/local government entity performing forensic science services is considered a “forensic science laboratory.” Medical examiner and coroner offices are considered to be forensic science laboratories for the purposes of this NOFO.
- Research: A systematic investigation—including research development, testing, and evaluation—designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Validation of established technologies for implementation in a laboratory setting is not considered research for the purposes of this NOFO.
- Accreditation: A formal process by which an impartial entity reviews the policies and procedures of an organization to ensure its operations are consistent with national or international standards. Accreditation assesses a forensic laboratory's capacity to generate and interpret results in a particular forensic discipline and helps to ensure an ongoing compliance to industry.