The Carnegie Corporation of New York has issued a call for proposals for research on technological advances that could threaten nuclear stability.
“With each major power investing heavily in nuclear and conventional modernization we are at the cusp of a new arms race, one that is especially hard to contain because the drivers of military advantage, from cyber to automation, are dual use and only partially controlled by governments,” the organization said in a press release.
As a result, Carnegie is ready to fund projects that examine emerging technologies “that might reshape the nuclear deterrence landscape, trigger an arms race, or increase the odds of a nuclear crisis,” it said. Examples of such technologies include drones, ballistic missile defenses, and cyber systems, along with “emergent capabilities” such as directed and space weapons, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and quantum sensors, according to Carnegie.
The organization in 1983 launched its Avoiding Nuclear War Program with the intent of building trust between Soviet and U.S. scientists and officials to prevent accidental warfare. During the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit held earlier this year, Carnegie announced it would partner with the MacArthur Foundation to invest up to $25 million over the next two years in nongovernmental nuclear security programs.
Interested parties under the latest solicitation can request up to $500,000 for two years of work. Letters of inquiry with the proposal, methodology, and qualifications of those involved must be submitted by Feb. 1, 2017, by email to newtechrfp@carnegie.org. Applicants that receive top scores during the initial review will then be invited to submit full proposals for grants that will begin Oct. 1, 2017. The organization did not specify whether it would cap awardees at a certain number.