Defense Department Awards $46.8 Million in Grants for Minerva Research InitiativeDefense Department Awards $20 Million to Establish Sustainable Cobalt Sulfate Production for[...]

The Department of Defense today announced $46.8 million in grants to 19 university-based faculty teams under its Minerva Research Initiative. These three- to five-year awards support basic research in social and behavioral sciences on topics relevant to U.S. national security.

"In a rapidly changing world, social science is essential for making sense of human behavior, guiding informed decisions, and understanding societal progress," said Dr. David Montgomery, director of social science in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering "We need to explore and better understand the complex social dynamics that shape our world and provide insights useful to policymakers and others concerned with the social context of security."

Through its network of faculty investigators, the Minerva Research Initiative builds strong connections to the social science community to help DoD better understand and prepare for future challenges, guided by priorities established in the National Defense Strategy.

R&E and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy selected 19 university awardees from over 150 applicants in eight categories, using merit-based metrics that evaluated proposals for their potential to make foundational contributions to basic social science, alignment with the National Defense Strategy, and potential impact.

The awarded projects include:

1. Social Cohesion in Action: How Collectivists and Interdependent Communities React to Adverse Events
   Topic Area: Societal Cohesion in Crisis
   Principal Investigator: Delia Baldassarri, New York University
2. How Is Organized Crime Organized? Understanding the Political Economy, Industrial Organization, and Recruitment Into Organized Crime in Colombia
   Topic Area: Societal Cohesion in Crisis
   Principal Investigator: Christopher Blattman, University of Chicago
3. China's Rise and Societal Cohesion in the Indo-Pacific: Concepts, Measures, Implications
   Topic Area: Societal Cohesion in Crisis
   Principal Investigator: Allen Hicken, University of Michigan
4. Mapping Societal Cohesion, Disinformation, and Adversary Influence Operations, and Group Formation in African Crisis Regions
   Topic Area: Societal Cohesion in Crisis
   Principal Investigator: Lewis Jacob, Washington State University
5. Conflict Resilience Across Scales: Theory and Data to Evaluate Societal Resilience to Water and Climate Shock
   Topic Area: Considering Societal Resilience at Multiple Scales
   Principal Investigator: Kate Brauman, University of Alabama
6. Modelling Scales of Societal Resilience to Concurrent Shocks in the Asia-Pacific Region
   Topic Area: Considering Societal Resilience at Multiple Scales
   Principal Investigator: Michael Frachetti, Washington University in St. Louis
7. "Un"Resilience: Drawing Insights from Societal Collapse
   Topic Area: Considering Societal Resilience at Multiple Scales
   Principal Investigator: Jose Padilla, Old Dominion University
8. Anticipating Coastal Population Mobility: Path to Maladaptation or Sociopolitical Stability
   Topic Area: Sociotechnical Adaptation to Climate, Food, and Water Stress
   Principal Investigator: Anamaria Bukvic, Virginia Technical University
9. Modeling Climate-Induced Societal Adaptation and Population Displacement
   Topic Area: Sociotechnical Adaptation to Climate, Food, and Water Stress
   Principal Investigator: Erik Wibbels, University of Pennsylvania
10. Harmonizing Research Into AI Futures and Governance
    Topic Area: Social Impact of Technological Change
    Principal Investigator: Nicholas Evans, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
11. Machine-Moderated Moral Injury: Exploring the Double-Edged Sword of Algorithmic Decision-Making in National Security
    Topic Area: Social Impact of Technological Change
    Principal Investigator: Neil Shortland, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
12. Randomized Controlled Trials to Examine the Impact of Generative AI
    Topic Area: Social Impact of Technological Change
    Principal Investigator: Alexander Volfovsky, Duke University
13. The Language of Parasocial Influence and the Emergence of Extremism
    Topic Area: Parasocial Relationships, Social Media, and Radicalization
    Principal Investigator: Joshua Plotkin, University of Pennsylvania
14. Beyond the Clock: Understanding Cross-Cultural Temporal Orientation of Military Officers
    Topic Area: Temporal Orientation and Strategic Considerations
    Principal Investigator: Erika Frydenlund, Old Dominion University
15. TimeBase: Systematically Mapping and Modeling Temporal Differences in Strategic Thinking, Signaling, (Inter-) Acting between the U.S., Russia, and China, and How They Matter
    Topic Area: Temporal Orientation and Strategic Considerations
    Principal Investigator: Adam Stulberg, Georgia Institute of Technology
16. Cooperation and Conflict Dynamics in Deterrence Networks
    Topic Area: Evolving Contexts of Deterrence
    Principal Investigator: Michael Gabbay, University of Washington
17. Empirical Study of Deterrence in the Context of Great Power Competition
    Topic Area: Evolving Contexts of Deterrence
    Principal Investigator: Renard Sexton, Emory University
18. Military Adaptation and War Termination
    Topic Area: War Termination Processes and Prospects
    Principal Investigator: Jacob Aronson, University of Maryland
19. What Sustains and Ends Wars: Will to Fight to Secure Ontological Significance Versus Material Capacity to Pursue Power
    Topic Area: War Termination Processes and Prospects
    Principal Investigator: Scott Atran, University of Oxford

The Minerva Research Initiative is funded by OUSD(R&E)'s Basic Research Office, with additional funding and joint program administration provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, and the Office of Naval Research. Minerva also works closely with the Strategy Office in OUSD(P). Click here for more information on the Minerva Research Initiative.

About USD(R&E)

The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)) is the Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Defense. The USD(R&E) champions research, science, technology, engineering, and innovation to maintain the United States military's technological advantage. Learn more at www.cto.mil, follow us on Twitter @DoDCTO, or visit us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ousdre.