BARI Social Science Program
The United States Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of Research and Engineering, Minerva Research Initiative and the United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Economic and Social Research Council announce the Bilateral Academic Research Initiative (BARI) Social Science Program competition for research that falls within the purview of the topic: Understanding and Influencing Behavior Below the Threshold of Armed Conflict: Countering Influence that Leads to Socio-economic and Political Instability.

About
The Bilateral Academic Research Initiative Pilot Program (BARI) is jointly sponsored by the US Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI). The BARI program addresses high risk basic research as an international collaboration. This research should attempt to understand new phenomena or produce discoveries that would impact understanding societal resilience in relation to social influence and information campaigns. 

This competition is NOW OPEN. White papers are due on September 15, 2023. Full proposals are due January 31, 2024. For more information, click here. 

Goals
The funders expect to support social science-led interdisciplinary projects that bring together a broad and diverse range of academic expertise and stakeholders to tackle pressing questions in this field. Research should expand understanding of vulnerability and susceptibility to advanced adversarial information warfare techniques that undermine social cohesion and trust in different cultural and environmental contexts.  We are looking to identify areas of US-UK coordinated research that could most effectively move this field forward. Through this initiative, the funders will support research that is international in focus, which can involve comparing or contrasting information campaigns and sub-threshold conflict contexts in different countries. Applicants to this call may select their countries of focus and are required to justify how their selection allows them to meet the objectives of the call. The funders recognize that applicants may need to consider one or multiple country context.

Eligibility Overview
A single proposal will be submitted by the US Research Team, on behalf of the two research teams. The single proposal must show that the proposed research is collaborative and interactive between the research teams and provide a distinct budget for the US Research Team (in US Dollars) and a distinct budget for the UK Research Team (in UK Pounds). The two principal investigators (PI’s), one belonging to the US Research Team and one belonging to the UK Research Team, will work with the US and UK technical points of contact (POCs) to ensure the research stays collaborative as the research progresses.

Application Process
Please note that to apply to this funding opportunity, you are strongly encouraged to submit a white paper by September 15, 2023, as an opportunity for reviewer feedback. You may submit a proposal without submitting a white paper, though this is discouraged. Following white paper feedback, organizations are required to submit full proposals by January 31, 2024. More information regarding guidelines and the application process can be found on grants.gov.

Deadlines:

Contact:
Please note that inquires will be shared between ESRC and Minerva.
DoD email: osd.minerva@mail.mil
ESRC email: esrc-dod@esrc.ukri.org