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The Minerva Steering Committee in the Office of the Secretary of Defense has selected ten proposals for 2012 award. Proposals were solicited through a 2011 Broad Agency Announcement – the second in the program’s history – was extremely competitive. The Department solicited proposals in seven topics of strategic importance and received a total of 330 white papers and 55 full proposals. The total amount of the awards is expected to be as much as $12 million over three years. Based on the proposals selected competition, more than 17 academic institutions, including two non-U.S. institutions, are expected to participate in the ten research efforts.
The list of institutions and research topics for the 2012 Minerva Research Initiative awards are as follows.
| Lead Institution | Principal Investigator | Project Title |
|---|---|---|
| Duke University | Lincoln Pratson | A Global Value Chain Analysis of Food Security and Food Staples for Major Energy-Exporting Nations in the Middle East and North Africa |
| Harvard University | Heidi Ellis | Identifying and countering early risk factors for violent extremism among Somali refugee communities resettled in North America |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Edward Steinfield | China’s Emerging Capabilities in Energy Technology Innovation and Development |
| Pennsylvania State University | Joseph Wright | Regional Dynamics and Regime Disruption in Dictatorships |
| University of California, San Diego | David Mares | Brazil as a Major Power: The Impact of its Military-Scientific-Industrial Complex on its Foreign and Defense Policy |
| University of California, San Diego | David Meyer | Quantifying Structural Transformation in China |
| University of Florida | Leonardo Villalón | Political Reform, Socio-Religious Change, and Stability in the African Sahel |
| University of Maryland | Arie Kruglanski | Motivational, Ideological and Social Processes in Political Violence |
| University of Michigan | Philip Potter | Terrorist Alliances: Causes, Dynamics, and Consequences |
| University of Vermont | Saleem Ali | Strategic Response to Energy-related Security Threats |
In 2008 the DoD Minerva Research Initiative had its first university research solicitation. (Department of Defense press release on first awards) Selected projects were executed either by the DoD or the National Science Foundation; those DoD projects began 2009 and will be completed in 2013 while the NSF projects began in 2010 and will be completed in late 2012. Projects are listed below.
| Lead Institution | Principal Investigator (PI) | Project Title |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona State University | Mark Woodward | Finding Allies for the War of Words: Mapping the Diffusion and Influence of Counter-Radical Muslim Discourse |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Nazli Choucri | ECIR - Explorations in Cyber International Relations MIT ECIR site Harvard ECIR site |
| Monterey Institute of International Studies | Patricia Lewis | Iraq’s Wars with the US from the Iraqi Perspective: State Security, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Civil-Military Relations, Ethnic Conflict and Political Communication in Baathist Iraq |
| Princeton University | Jacob Shapiro | Terrorism, Governance, and Development [Project data site] |
| San Francisco State University | David Matsumoto | Emotion and Intergroup Relations |
| University of California, San Diego | Tai Ming Cheung | The Evolving Relationship Between Technology and National Security in China: Innovation, Defense Transformation, and China’s Place in the Global Technology Order |
| University of Texas at Austin | Francis J. Gavin | Climate Change and African Political Stability |
| Principal Investigators | Project Title |
|---|---|
| Patrick Barclay (University of Guelph) and Stephen Bernard (Indiana University) | Status, Manipulating Group Threats, and Conflict Within and Between Groups |
| Catherine Eckel (Texas A&M) and Charles Holt (University of Virginia) | Behavioral Insights into National Security Issues |
| William Reed, Charles Holt (University of Virginia), Timothy Nordstrom (University of Mississippi), and David Clark (State University of New York - Binghamton) | Experimental Analysis of Alternative Models of Conflict Bargaining |
| Stephen Shellman (College of William and Mary), Remco Chang (University of North Carolina- Charlotte), Michael Covington (University of Georgia), Joseph Young (Southern Illinois University - Carbondale), Michael Findley (Brigham Young University) | Terror, Conflict Processes, Organizations, and Ideologies: Completing the Picture |
| Barbara Geddes (University of California – Los Angeles) and Joseph Wright (Pennsylvania State University) | How Politics Inside Dictatorships Affects Regime Stability and International Conflict |
| Martha Crenshaw (Stanford University) | Mapping Terrorist Organizations |
| Cynthia Buckley (University of Texas - Austin) | People, Power, and Conflict in the Eurasian Migration System |
| Virginia Fortna (Columbia University) | Strategies of Violence, Tools of Peace, and Changes in War Termination |
| Jaroslav Tir (University of Georgia) | Avoiding Water Wars: Environmental Security Through River Treaty Institutionalization |
| Laura Razzolini (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Atin Basuchoudhary (Virginia Military Institute) | Predicting the Nature of Conflict - An Evolutionary Analysis of the Tactical Choice |
| Robert Powell (University of California - Berkeley) | Fighting and Bargaining over Political Power in Weak States |
| Eli Berman (University of California - San Diego) | Workshop on the Political Economy of Terrorism and Insurgency |
| Rachel Croson (University of Texas - Dallas) | Substantive Expertise, Strategic Analysis and Behavioral Foundations of Terrorism (Workshop) |
| Roy Licklider (Rutgers University) | New Armies from Old: Merging Competing Military Forces after Civil Wars (Workshop) |
| Geoffrey Wiseman (University of Southern California) | Engaging Intensely Adversarial States: The Strategic Limits and Potential of Public Diplomacy in U.S. National Security Policy |
| J. Craig Jenkins (Ohio State University) | Deciphering Civil Conflict in the Middle East |
| Jeff Hancock (Cornell University), Arthur Graesser (University of Memphis), and David Beaver (University of Texas - Austin) | Modeling Discourse and Social Dynamics in Authoritarian Regimes |
View specific DoD/NSF awards for more information.
