Sept. 8, 2022

Minerva's FY22 FOA is Now Open

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is interested in receiving proposals for the Minerva Research Initiative,  a university-led defense social science program seeking fundamental understanding of the social and cultural forces shaping U.S. strategic interests globally. OSD is particularly interested in projects that align with and support

Aug. 31, 2022

New Minerva-funded Publication, "Escalation Management in Gray Zone Crises: The Proxy Factor"

"This study addresses the dynamics of how states employ proxies to achieve their strategic goals in the so-called gray zone between normal competition and armed conflict. The basic question is whether the use of proxies by the challenger in a crisis decreases the probability that the defender state will respond with violence."

Aug. 30, 2022

SAVE THE DATE: 2022 Minerva Virtual Series

We are looking forward to hosting our 2022 Minerva Virtual Series that will be held over four days in October. These sessions will facilitate an environment for Minerva grant awardees and other interested social science researchers to join in a policy-oriented conversation with defense policy makers and military operations personnel.

Aug. 5, 2022

New Minerva-funded Article, "Public Use and Public Funding of Science" published in Nature Human Behaviour

"Knowledge of how science is consumed in public domains is essential for understanding the role of science in human society. Here we examine public use and public funding of science by linking tens of millions of scientific publications from all scientific fields to their upstream funding support and downstream public uses across three public domains—government documents, news media and marketplace invention."

Aug. 1, 2022

New Minerva-funded Publication, "Tipping Points: Challenges in Analyzing International Crisis Escalation"

Why do some near crises tip over into full-blown crisis and others do not? This paper considers existing scholarship and identifies four key barriers to using quantitative analysis for tipping-point analyses.

July 20, 2022

Who Gets Smart? Explaining How Precision Bombs Proliferate

Recent publication from Minerva-funded researchers theorize about the key drivers of smart bomb proliferation, including an interaction between the security environment, regime type, and the interest of states in precision to help them follow the law of war.

July 6, 2022

The Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership competition is NOW OPEN

The Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership competition is NOW OPEN on grants.gov. White paper submissions are due on Thursday, September 8th. The DECUR FOA follows different guidelines and deadlines than the Minerva University Grants FOA, though the Research Priorities are the same.

June 22, 2022

Leadership Targeting and Militant Alliance Breakdown

Minerva-funded researcher’s recent publication in the University of Chicago’s Journal of Politics show that leadership targeting can lead to the breakdown of alliances among militant groups.

June 9, 2022

Minerva-funded researchers new article, "What will keep ships — and people — safer in the Gulf of Guinea?"

"While global maritime piracy generally decreased from 2015 to 2020, piracy incidents increased substantially in the Gulf of Guinea."

May 26, 2022

Minerva-funded researchers new article "The Myth of US Energy Independence" published in Nature

"The Russia–Ukraine crisis has exposed vulnerabilities in US energy security. The US may import only a small amount of Russian oil but it is tied to Russian energy via its participation in highly globalized supply chains."