Minerva Research Initiative | WHS AD FOA 18

Opportunity Information: Apply for WHS AD FOA 18

The Minerva Research Initiative is a Department of Defense (DoD) grant opportunity run through the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) that funds university-led, social science-focused research intended to build fundamental understanding of the social and cultural forces that shape US strategic interests around the world. The program is designed to support research that is basic and scholarly in nature, but also clearly relevant to national security priorities, especially those laid out in the 2018 National Defense Strategy. A central goal of Minerva is to strengthen a candid, constructive relationship between DoD and the academic social science community by supporting rigorous, independent university research in areas where deeper insight can improve long-term strategic thinking.

This competition invites innovative white papers and full proposals that address one or more of eight research themes. These themes span political, economic, informational, technological, and security dynamics that affect competition, conflict, cooperation, and stability. The eight topics are: (1) sociopolitical stability and instability, resilience, and recovery, focusing on how societies withstand shocks, experience breakdown, and rebuild; (2) economic interdependence and security, examining how trade, finance, supply chains, and economic ties create vulnerabilities or leverage; (3) alliances and burden sharing, centered on how alliances function, how costs and responsibilities are negotiated, and what affects cohesion and credibility; (4) fundamental dynamics of scientific discovery, looking at how scientific innovation emerges, spreads, and is shaped by institutions and competition; (5) adversarial information campaigns, addressing propaganda, disinformation, influence operations, and how populations and institutions are targeted and respond; (6) automated cyber vulnerability analysis, supporting research that advances methods for identifying and assessing cyber weaknesses at scale; (7) power, deterrence, influence, and escalation management for shaping operations, focused on how states signal, compete, deter, and manage escalation in gray-zone or shaping activities; and (8) security risks in ungoverned and semi-governed spaces, examining how limited governance enables violence, illicit networks, and instability and what conditions change those risks.

Administratively, this is a discretionary grant opportunity under the DoD with the funding activity category listed as science and technology and other research and development. Eligible applicants are US institutions of higher education, including both public/state-controlled universities and private universities. The opportunity is identified as WHS AD FOA 18 and is associated with CFDA number 12.630. The original closing date listed for submissions was August 14, 2018, and the opportunity record shows an award ceiling of $15,000,000. Overall, Minerva is positioned as a research program for universities that can bring strong social science theory, data, and methods to questions that matter for long-term defense strategy, with a clear emphasis on projects that align with the National Defense Strategy and that push beyond incremental work toward genuinely innovative research contributions.

• The Department of Defense in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Minerva Research Initiative" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 12.630.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-05-24.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-08-14. (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 $15,000,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for WHS AD FOA 18

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