The following letter was shared by Lewis-Burke Associates LLC on July 17, 2020.
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OSD(R&E)), Basic Research Office (BRO) released a broad agency announcement (BAA) on July 16 for fundamental research in the socio-mathematics of information and influence. This BAA seeks to expand understanding of future information warfare and the tracking and prediction of attempts at social manipulation. In particular, BRO desires mathematical and social science solutions to analyze and predict human behaviors in dynamic environments. Proposals should go beyond conventional methods and instead aim to produce novel disruptive frameworks to combat disinformation and cyber influence. The BAA includes the following examples of research areas that may be pursued, though the list is not exhaustive:
-
“Carefully designed mathematical abstractions based on behavioral science for modeling the agent’s psychological and social variables, e.g.: emotional and cognitive states, human intent and belief, and group dynamics. These models should include approaches to multi- scale clustering for accurate comprehension and modeling of aggregate behavior, e.g. individual – group – nation.”
-
“Game-theoretical and Machine Learning concepts, e.g. multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) or distributional RL, as well as other innovative ideas that can consider a hybrid distribution of irrational and rational agents, including artificial ones (e.g. bots).”
-
“Efficient mathematical methods and algorithms to detect malicious intent and learn agent behavior and objectives from limited and noisy observations.”
-
“Concepts and methods for strategy optimization (inverse design), which may include counter- messaging, network-based intervention, or other means.”
BRO strongly encourages proposals that employ combinations of expertise given the multidisciplinary nature of this topic. In addition, BRO encourages proposals that examine evolutionary co-designs of threat and defense strategies, creating the ability to predict threat scenarios and verify defensive postures.
Submission Information: The DOD will be accepting proposals submitted on or before August 28, 2020, 4:00 PM (EDT), with selections expected by mid-November 2020. Questions regarding the BAA should be submitted to Jean-Luc Cambier at [email protected] by August 10, 2020.
Total Award Funding: BRO anticipates providing up to $3 million for two awards for a performance period of three years. Funding may support two options from the same proposal, or two different options from two separate proposals. Single option proposals will be limited to a $1.5 million award.
Eligibility: This opportunity is limited to accredited, doctoral degree-granting U.S. institutions of higher education and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs). Principal Investigators are limited to one application, though Co-Principal Investigators may participate in multiple applications.
Sources and additional information:
• The BAA can be found on https://www.grants.gov/ under solicitation number “BRO-20-SOMAII”.