BJA FY25 Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program | O BJA 2025 172470

Opportunity Information: Apply for O BJA 2025 172470

The BJA FY25 Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), focused on strengthening how jurisdictions handle missing persons (MP) and unidentified human remains (UHR) cases. The central goal is to help agencies and laboratories improve the full operational chain involved in these cases, including reporting practices, the transportation of remains, forensic processing, and ultimately identification. By increasing the speed, consistency, and quality of investigative and forensic responses, the program is intended to improve public safety and provide answers to families and communities.

A key feature of this program is its explicit inclusion of cases involving migrants, as authorized by Public Law 116-277. In practice, that means the funding can support efforts that address the specialized challenges that sometimes arise in migrant-related MP/UHR cases, such as cross-jurisdictional coordination, resource-intensive recovery and transportation needs, and the forensic work required to identify individuals when traditional leads are limited. The overall emphasis is on building capacity so that more cases can move from unresolved to identified through better systems, better coordination, and better forensic throughput.

Eligible applicants are broad in terms of government and nonprofit categories, but the solicitation also highlights specific types of operational entities that are central to this work. These include accredited, publicly funded forensic laboratories that participate in CODIS (the Combined DNA Index System), medical examiner offices, accredited publicly funded toxicology laboratories, and accredited publicly funded crime laboratories. The broader eligibility list includes state governments, counties, cities or townships, public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, and nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3), excluding higher education institutions in those nonprofit categories). Applicants should pay close attention to the eligibility criteria in the official announcement, since the program text signals that accreditation and public funding status matter for certain laboratory types.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is listed under Funding Opportunity Number O-BJA-2025-172470 and is tied to CFDA number 16.050, within the Law, Justice and Legal Services funding activity category. Awards are made through a grant instrument, with an award ceiling of $1,000,000. The posting indicates an original closing date of October 10, 2025, and a creation date of September 17, 2025. While the number of expected awards is not specified in the provided information, the stated cap suggests the program can fund substantial projects that improve investigative workflows, reduce forensic backlogs, expand or modernize identification capabilities, and strengthen interagency processes that support identification outcomes.

Overall, MUHR is designed to help communities and forensic systems do the practical, often resource-heavy work required to locate missing individuals and identify unknown decedents. It supports improvements that make cases more solvable, evidence handling more reliable, and forensic identification more achievable, especially in complex scenarios such as migrant-related cases, where identification can depend heavily on coordinated reporting, careful forensic work, and sustained operational capacity.

• The Bureau of Justice Assistance in the law, justice and legal services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "BJA FY25 Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 16.050.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-09-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-10-10. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Others.

Apply for O BJA 2025 172470

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