NIST Report Outlines Strategic Opportunities to Advance Forensic Science in the U.S.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published Strategic Opportunities to Advance Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward Through Research and Standards, which identifies four “grand challenges” facing the forensic science community in the United States.

The report provides a strategic roadmap for addressing these challenges through scientific research and standards. It also assesses the state of the field 15 years after a landmark report from the National Academy of Sciences identified critical gaps in the scientific foundations of several forensic disciplines.

“NIST looks forward to continuing to strengthen the science that supports forensic science by working together with stakeholders in the forensic science and criminal justice communities to drive significant advancements in the practice of forensic science in the years ahead,” said NIST Director Laurie Locascio in a foreword to the report.

The forensic science community has a significant opportunity to strengthen the validity, reliability, and consistency of existing methods and techniques for the analysis of forensic evidence; develop new methods to analyze complex forensic evidence; advance the development of science-based standards and guidelines; and promote the adoption and use of these advances by forensic service providers and officers of the court. By addressing these shared challenges, the forensic science community will strengthen the foundations of our criminal justice system, ensuring fairness and impartiality while also preserving public safety and public trust.

To complete this report, NIST researchers conducted an extensive literature review and collected input from academic and government researchers, forensic science practitioners, legal experts, statistics experts and feedback from NIST subject matter experts. The report outlines the following four “grand challenges” facing the forensic science community and provides strategies for addressing them through research and development efforts and adoption of standards:

• Accuracy and reliability of complex methods and techniques for analysis of forensic evidence. Quantify and establish statistically rigorous measures of accuracy and reliability of complex methods and techniques for forensic evidence analysis that clearly demonstrate their validity when applied to evidence of varying quality.
• New methods and techniques for analysis of forensic evidence. Develop new methods and techniques for forensic evidence analysis, including those that leverage the benefits of algorithms and next-generation technologies, such as AI, to provide rapid analyses of forensic evidence and produce new analytical insights from complex forensic evidence.
• Science-based standards and guidelines for forensic science practices. Develop rigorous science-based standards, conformity assessment schemes, and guidelines across forensic science disciplines to support consistent and comparable results from forensic analyses among laboratories and jurisdictions.
• Adoption and use of advanced forensic analysis methods, techniques, standards and guidelines. Promote the adoption and use of advances in forensic science standards, guidelines, methods, and techniques aimed at improving the validity, reliability, and consistency of forensic science practices.

This report builds upon earlier efforts NIST conducted to assess the forensic science environment to inform strategic planning. The resulting Forensic Science Environmental Scan 2023 report captured salient issues and trends across five different landscapes: governance, economic, societal, scientific and technological, and legal and regulatory. In addition, NIST held a roundtable workshop with forensic science thought leaders from across forensic disciplines to discuss the long-term vision and strategic priorities for forensic science in the United States.

NIST’s Forensic Science Program works to strengthen the scientific basis of forensic methods and practices so that evidence is appropriately collected, accurately analyzed, and effectively communicated. These NIST efforts are intended to bring the best possible forensic science methods and practices to the criminal justice system, thereby eliminating potential bias in measurements, analysis, and interpretation of evidence.