Social scientists and humanitarians take note: the Pentagon is willing to buy you lunch and a good bit more if you’ll just give Secretary of Defense a bit of help on a few nagging global security problems.
Defense Secretary Bob Gates, himself a former university president, is funding the so-called “Minerva” research initiative (MRI) to explore issues of Chinese military technology, change in the Islamic World, Iraqi public opinion, and, well, global conflict in general. Seems his generals are a bit busy these days with other problems.
(Minerva is the Greek goddess of wisdom – get it?)
DoD is ignoring the conventional RFP (“Request for Proposal”) traditions and simply asking in a Broad Agency Announcement for relatively free-form proposals from the university and think-tank crowd.
The formal notice went out June 12th. White papers are due July 25 and full proposals are due October 3. At least $50 million in Federal funding is at stake. I guess there won't be much of a break for some of the hungrier professors and their grad students this summer.
Says the notice: “The MRI is a DoD-sponsored, university-based social science research program initiated by the Secretary of Defense. It focuses on areas 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 will bring together universities, research institutions, and individual scholars and support multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects addressing specific topic areas determined by the Department. MRI competition is open to institutions of higher education (universities).”
Let the games begin.
■ Tom Goff
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Nick Catrantzos + Tom Goff
- All Secure
- NICK CATRANTZOS is the lead author of the All Secure website and is the emeritus security director for a large public organization. He has also managed security aspects of corporate takeovers, response to international hostage situations, and finding and keeping secrets. He has been board certified in security management, licensed as a private investigator, and certified as an incident commander. He worked as a case officer for a discreet branch of public service. He protected stealth technology at Lockheed and, later, as a consulting security director for both Kroll and Control Risks, he assisted executives with workplace violence cases and with protecting VIPs and critical assets globally in volatile areas. Nick's partner, TOM GOFF, was a captain in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and has a law degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, was senior editor at New York Magazine and Esquire, and has provided crisis and communications counsel to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed, ARCO, Microsoft, Nissan, and Sony Pictures.