Funding Opportunities
The purpose of this announcement is to solicit applications from district attorney offices for costs associated with the forensic analysis of physical evidence or from local law enforcement, district attorneys, medical examiners, and coroners’ offices for costs associated with forensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis.
State funds for these projects are authorized under the Texas General Appropriations Act, Article I, Rider 29 for Trusteed Programs within the Office of the Governor. All awards are subject to the availability of appropriated funds and any modifications or additional requirements that may be imposed by law. The Public Safety Office (PSO) expects to make available $2M for FY2027.
1. District Attorney Forensic Testing - Applications may be submitted by counties and judicial districts that operate a district attorney office as listed in Chapter 43-45 of the Texas Government Code.
2. Genetic Genealogical DNA Analysis - Applications may be submitted by local units of government that operate a law enforcement agency, a district attorney office, a medical examiner’s office or a coroner’s office.
All applications submitted by local law enforcement agencies/offices must be submitted by a unit of government affiliated with the agency, including an authorizing resolution from that unit of government. For example, police departments must apply under their municipal government, and community supervision and corrections departments, district attorneys, and judicial districts must apply through their affiliated county government (or one of the counties, in the case of agencies that serve more than one county).
Applicants must access the PSO’s eGrants grant management website at https://eGrants.gov.texas.gov to register and apply for funding.
***NEW APPLICATION SUBMISSION REQUIREMENT***
The following documents must be submitted with the application for the application to be considered complete and eligible for funding. See the Eligibility Requirements and/or Program-Specific Requirements Sections of this Funding Announcement for more details on the requirements for each attachment/certification:
Failure to submit the fully executed required attachment(s) by the application deadline may result in the application being deemed ineligible.
Projects must begin on or after 09/01/2026 and may not exceed a 12 month project period.
Minimum: None
Maximum: None
Match Requirement: None
Grantees must comply with standards applicable to this fund source cited in the Texas Grant
Management Standards (TxGMS), Federal Uniform Grant Guidance, and all statutes, requirements, and guidelines applicable to this funding.
Funds may be used for costs associated with the forensic analysis of physical evidence.
1. District Attorney Forensic Testing –
Costs associated with the forensic analysis of physical evidence for disciplines listed in 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 651.5 (2025) subject to accreditation by Article 38.35 Code of Criminal Procedure. Disciplines which must be processed through an accredited laboratory include:
Costs associated with the forensic analysis of physical evidence for the following disciplines listed in 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 651.6 (2018) which are not subject to crime laboratory accreditation may include:
Allowable costs include:
2. Genetic Genealogical DNA Analysis
Costs associated with the forensic genetic genealogy testing of DNA evidence.
Allowable costs include:
Texas Forensic Science Commission Accreditation. Applicants may only utilize accredited laboratories that comply with state regulations and rules for accreditation, including forensic analyst licensing for mandatory disciplines, promulgated by the Texas Forensic Science Commission in 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 651.5 (2025). A list of all accredited labs may be found at: https://fsc.txcourts.gov/AccreditedLabPublic/
Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). When funds are used for DNA testing of evidentiary materials, any resulting eligible DNA profiles must be uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) by a government DNA lab with access to CODIS.
Genetic Genealogy Laboratory Accreditation. When funds are used for forensic genetic genealogy DNA analysis, applicants must utilize laboratories accredited by the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) or the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) recognized by 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 651.4 (2023), to test Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) using Massively Parallel Sequencing or Microarray technology.
1. Applications from nonprofit corporations, local units of governments, and other political subdivisions must submit a fully executed resolution with the application to be considered eligible for funding. The resolution must contain the following elements (see Sample Resolution):
2. Local units of governments must comply with the Cybersecurity Training requirements described in Section 772.012 and Section 2054.5191 of the Texas Government Code. Local governments determined to not be in compliance with the cybersecurity requirements required by Section 2054.5191 of the Texas Government Code are ineligible for OOG grant funds until the second anniversary of the date the local government is determined ineligible. Government entities must annually certify their compliance with the training requirements using the Cybersecurity Training Certification for State and Local Governments. A copy of the Training Certification must be uploaded to your eGrants application. For more information or to access available training programs, visit the Texas Department of Information Resources Statewide Cybersecurity Awareness Training page.
3. Entities receiving funds from PSO must be located in a county that has an average of 90% or above on both adult and juvenile dispositions entered into the computerized criminal history database maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) as directed in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 66. The disposition completeness percentage is defined as the percentage of arrest charges a county reports to DPS for which a disposition has been subsequently reported and entered into the computerized criminal history system.
Counties applying for grant awards from the Office of the Governor must commit that the county will report at least 90% of convictions within five business days to the Criminal Justice Information System at the Department of Public Safety.
4. Eligible applicants operating a law enforcement agency must be current on reporting complete UCR data and the Texas specific reporting mandated by 411.042 TGC, to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) for inclusion in the annual Crime in Texas (CIT) publication. To be considered eligible for funding, applicants must have submitted a full twelve months of accurate data to DPS for the most recent calendar year by the deadline(s) established by DPS. Due to the importance of timely reporting, applicants are required to submit complete and accurate UCR data, as well as the Texas-mandated reporting, on a no less than monthly basis and respond promptly to requests from DPS related to the data submitted.
5. In accordance with Texas Government Code, Section 420.034, any facility or entity that collects evidence for sexual assault or other sex offenses or investigates or prosecutes a sexual assault or other sex offense for which evidence has been collected, must participate in the statewide electronic tracking system developed and implemented by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Visit DPS’s Sexual Assault Evidence Tracking Program website for more information or to set up an account to begin participating. Additionally, per Section 420.042 "A law enforcement agency that receives evidence of a sexual assault or other sex offense...shall submit that evidence to a public accredited crime laboratory for analysis no later than the 30th day after the date on which that evidence was received." A law enforcement agency in possession of a significant number of Sexual Assault Evidence Kits (SAEK) where the 30-day window has passed may be considered noncompliant.
6. Local units of government, including cities, counties and other general purpose political subdivisions, as appropriate, and institutions of higher education that operate a law enforcement agency, must comply with all aspects of the programs and procedures utilized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to: (1) notify DHS of all information requested by DHS related to illegal aliens in Agency’s custody; and (2) detain such illegal aliens in accordance with requests by DHS. Additionally, counties and municipalities may NOT have in effect, purport to have in effect, or make themselves subject to or bound by, any law, rule, policy, or practice (written or unwritten) that would: (1) require or authorize the public disclosure of federal law enforcement information in order to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection fugitives from justice or aliens illegally in the United States, 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii); (2) impede federal officers from exercising authority under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), § 1226(c), § 1231(a), § 1357(a), § 1366(1), or § 1366(3); (3) encourage or induce an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States in violation of law, 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv); (4) result in the illegal transport or movement of aliens within the United States, 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii) . Lastly, eligible applicants must comply with all provisions, policies, and penalties found in Chapter 752, Subchapter C of the Texas Government Code.
Each local unit of government, and institution of higher education that operates a law enforcement agency, must download, complete and then upload into eGrants the CEO/Law Enforcement Certifications and Assurances Form certifying compliance with federal and state immigration enforcement requirements. This Form is required for each application submitted to OOG and is active until August 31, 2027 or the end of the grant period, whichever is later.
7. Eligible applicants must be registered in the federal System for Award Management (SAM) database and have an UEI (Unique Entity ID) number assigned to its agency (to get registered in the SAM database and request an UEI number, go to https://sam.gov/).
Failure to comply with program eligibility requirements may cause funds to be withheld and/or suspension or termination of grant funds.
Grant funds may not be used to support the unallowable costs listed in the Guide to Grants or any of the following unallowable costs:
PSO will screen all applications to ensure that they meet the requirements included in the funding announcement.
Applications will then be reviewed by PSO staff members or a review group selected by the executive director. PSO will make all final funding decisions based on eligibility, reasonableness, availability of funding, and cost-effectiveness.
The Office of the Governor may not fund all applications or may only award part of the amount requested. In the event that funding requests exceed available funds, the Office of the Governor may revise projects to address a more limited focus.
For more information, contact the eGrants help desk at eGrants@gov.texas.gov or (512) 463-1919.
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