Grants / Department of Defense / Washington Headquarters Services

WHS-AD-FOA-21-01: Minerva Research Initiative

Closed Closed September 29, 2021 Opportunity WHS-AD-FOA-21-01 ☆ Save

This grant is closed. A newer notice from the same program is open now: ERDC Broad Agency Announcement (W912HZ26S0001). Status: Closes January 1, 2027 (55 days left). It is in our archive of Washington Headquarters Services notices from 2021.

• Award ceiling$1.0 million
• Award floor$150,000
• Total funding$15.0 million
• Expected awards20
• Cost sharingNot required
• Funding typeGrant

Key dates

Who can apply

This opportunity was open to any type of organization.

• Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility"

More grants for nonprofits, colleges and universities, state and local governments, tribes, small businesses, businesses, individuals.

Is this a realistic fit?

• Past Basic, Applied, and Advanced Research in Science and Engineering awards averaged $1.1 million; this notice allows up to $1.0 million per award.
• Most of the program's money (69% over five years) went to colleges and universities.
• No cost sharing or match is required.

What the grant funds

The Minerva Research Initiative (Minerva) emphasizes questions of strategic importance to U.S. national security policy. It seeks to increase the Department’s intellectual capital in the social sciences and improve its ability to address future challenges and build bridges between the Department and the social science community. Minerva brings together universities and other research institutions around the world and supports multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects addressing specific interest areas determined by the Department of Defense. The Minerva program aims to promote research in specific areas of social science and to promote a candid and constructive relationship between DoD and the social science academic community. The Minerva Research Initiative competition is for research related to nine (9) topics listed below. Innovative white papers and proposals related to these research areas are highly encouraged. Detailed descriptions of the interest areas—which are intended to provide a frame of reference and are not meant to be restrictive—can be found in Section IX, “Minerva Topics.” Topic 1: Social Implications of Environmental Change Topic 2: Resource Competition, Social Cohesion, and Strategic Climate Resilience Topic 3: Security Risks in Ungoverned, Semi-Governed, and Differently-Governed Spaces Topic 4: Analysis of Foreign Influence Operations in Cross-Cultural Perspective Topic 5: Community Studies on Online and Offline Influence Topic 6: Computational Social Science Research on Difficult-to-Access Environments Topic 7: Social and Cultural Implications of Artificial Intelligence Topic 8: Humans and Outer Space Topic 9: Management and Information in the Defense Environment Proposals will be considered both for single-investigator awards as well as larger teams. A team of university investigators may be warranted because the necessary expertise in addressing the multiple facets of the interest areas may reside in different universities, or in different departments of the same university. The research questions addressed should extend across a fairly broad range of linked issues where there is clear potential synergy among the contributions of the distinct disciplines represented on the team. Team proposals must name only one Principal Investigator as the responsible technical point of contact. Similarly, one institution will be the primary recipient for the purpose of award execution.

Category: Science and Technology and other Research and Development.

Applying now

This notice no longer takes applications. Apply under the newer notice, W912HZ26S0001, which is open now.

The notice on Grants.gov keeps its full text and attachments, which is useful for planning a resubmission.