In facilitating the creation of the National Forensic Science Institute (NFSI) through grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the University of Tennessee sought to improve the capacity of State and local crime laboratories to conduct forensic analyses in the investigation and adjudication of crime. NFSI will accomplish this mission through the fostering of research, providing training, and encouraging the development of forensic technologies, thereby serving the best interests of the criminal justice system in the United States. In the area of training, the National Forensic Academy (NFA) will be expanded to provide expert training that dramatically enhances the knowledge, skills, and professionalism of the criminalist, and results in the reduction of substandard forensic evidentiary material submissions, thus reducing the backlog of cases at the State and local crime laboratories. In the area of research, research will be funded and development projects will be dedicated to the furtherance of forensic science. In the third and final area of technology, facilitate the transfer of forensic technologies that have been developed in the National Laboratory system, researchers, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms National Integrated Ballistics Imaging Network (NIBIN) to the practitioners responding to crime scenes.