MINERVA RESEARCH INITIATIVE | WHS AD FOA 19

Opportunity Information: Apply for WHS AD FOA 19

The Minerva Research Initiative is a Department of Defense grant program focused on basic social science research that can inform issues of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. Its core purpose is to strengthen DoD's long-term intellectual capital in the social sciences, improve the Department's ability to anticipate and respond to future security challenges, and build durable connections between DoD and the broader academic social science community. The program is structured to support rigorous, policy-relevant scholarship while encouraging open, candid engagement between researchers and government stakeholders. Minerva brings together universities and other research institutions, including collaborations that may span multiple institutions and disciplines, to address priority research areas selected by DoD.

This particular competition invites innovative white papers and full proposals aligned with nine topic areas. These topics cover a mix of international relations, political and economic security, logistics and infrastructure resilience, computational social science, and emerging technology impacts on society and conflict. The nine areas are: (1) peer and near-peer statecraft, influence, and regional balance of power; (2) power, deterrence, and escalation management; (3) alliances and burden sharing; (4) economic interdependence and security; (5) the economic viability, resilience, and sustainability of logistics infrastructure; (6) multi-domain behavioral complexity and computational social modeling; (7) autonomy, artificial intelligence, machine ethics, and social interactions; (8) models and methods for understanding covert online influence; and (9) automated cyber vulnerability analysis. DoD notes that the detailed descriptions of these areas are meant to frame and guide ideas rather than restrict them, so applicants can propose creative approaches as long as they clearly connect to one or more of the stated interests.

The opportunity is open to a broad range of applicants (unrestricted eligibility, subject to any clarifications in the full announcement). Funding is provided as a discretionary grant under CFDA 12.630 (science and technology and other research and development). Proposals may be submitted by a single investigator or by larger, multidisciplinary teams. Team-based proposals are explicitly encouraged when the required expertise spans multiple disciplines or institutions, such as different departments within a university or multiple universities working together. Even for team proposals, the application must designate one Principal Investigator as the responsible technical point of contact, and one institution must serve as the primary award recipient for administrative purposes.

For collaborative projects, the announcement emphasizes clarity and accountability in project organization and finances. Applicants are expected to describe how participating institutions will work together, specify each partner's role, and explain how funds will be allocated, including any subawards. This division of responsibilities and funding must be consistent across both the narrative proposal and the budget. The proposal must also clearly articulate the project's basic research contribution, meaning it should explain how the work advances fundamental understanding in the relevant social science or interdisciplinary area, not just produce short-term applied outputs.

Key administrative details included in the listing are: the funding opportunity title "MINERVA RESEARCH INITIATIVE," opportunity number "WHS AD FOA 19," agency "Department of Defense," creation date May 03, 2019, original closing date June 20, 2019, an award ceiling of $1,250,000, and an expected total of about 12 awards.

• 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 May 03, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 20, 2019. (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 $1,250,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for WHS AD FOA 19

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: