Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project Title
For one time funding for a feasibility study on the verification of nuclear weapons in orbit under the Outer Space Treaty as part of a Request for Proposals for the Consortium to Reduce Nuclear Dangers
Date
Dec. 11, 2025
Duration
0 months
Description
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons in orbit, but the agreement offers no verification measures. Indeed, verification of the Treaty remains a major technical challenge, given the harsh radiation environment and limited detection options. This project, led by a team of nuclear scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will conduct a novel feasibility study of whether new technologies related to passive radiation signatures and related detection methods can confirm or disprove the presence of nuclear warheads in orbit. The research will combine computational modeling, sensitivity and background studies, and policy analysis in collaboration with other MIT nuclear experts. By developing novel verification techniques that leverage the space radiation environment, the project seeks to deter covert nuclear deployments in space and provide policymakers with new technical options for outer space arms control.
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Project Title
For core support for projects on East Asian security dynamics and wargaming
Date
Jun. 06, 2024
Duration
24 months
Description
Global stability increasingly faces more and deeper challenges, including China’s military buildup, rising assertiveness by North Korea, and emerging technologies with military applications. With renewed funding, MIT’s Security Studies Program (SSP) will undertake projects to better understand the impact of new technologies on U.S.-China naval competition and to investigate the causes and consequences of recent changes to North Korea’s security strategy. SSP will also offer training opportunities for students, faculty and policy analysts to conduct and analyze wargames as a tool for understanding conflict dynamics.
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Project Title
For fellowships for technical training on nuclear nonproliferation and arms control
Date
Mar. 07, 2024
Duration
24 months
Description
Analysis of nuclear policy and the development of arms control verification methods require technical proficiency and mentoring in niche applications of physics and engineering. With renewed funding, this project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Nuclear Engineering Department will help build this technical capacity by training a doctoral student or a post-doctoral fellow through a project that analyzes the vulnerability of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos to strikes from precision-guided conventional weapons.The project will also assess the implications of such a development for strategic stability and future opportunities for arms control.
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Project Title
As a final core support grant of the Systems Awareness Lab
Date
Jun. 06, 2024
Duration
24 months
Description
MIT’s Systems Awareness Lab is dedicated to increasing the capacity of educators and key stakeholders to design and implement interventions and policies aimed at improving students’ academic outcomes, educational experiences, and future career success. Through a process focused on analyzing context, goal setting, continuous improvement, and leadership development, the Systems Awareness Lab partners with school districts to address problems of practice that stymie student progress. With continued support from the Corporation, the Systems Awareness Lab will expand capacity-building programs in Humboldt County, CA and Ventura County, CA, districts the Lab has worked closely with since its inception, as well as study the impact of this work on students and educators and document and disseminate effective strategies that have demonstrated impact on student outcomes.
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Project Title
For a digital rapid response capability for nuclear crises
Date
Mar. 09, 2023
Duration
37 months
Description
Efforts by academic institutions and think tanks to influence nuclear policy tend to focus on policymakers rather than engaging the public. These groups also lack the capacity to produce media quickly and especially the digital media favored by younger generations. Digital Rapid Response (DRR) offers an innovative way to engage the public in nuclear issues by making over 200 pieces of visual content related to nuclear events or crises available for free to organizations for use on digital platforms in real time, when interest is at its highest. With continued support from the Corporation, DRR will produce new content, test and refine the base infrastructure for the rapid response capability, and develop collaborative dissemination strategies.
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Project Title
For improving diversity in the study of nuclear security
Date
Sep. 15, 2022
Duration
24 months
Description
Calls for greater diversity resonate across the sectors of American society, including in the field of nuclear security. Addressing this challenge requires strengthening the pipeline of individuals entering the field as practitioners and creating opportunities for diversifying tenure-track scholars in academia. With these goals, a project at MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy will recruit, mentor, and train a research assistant from a diverse background aiming for admission to competitive PhD programs or policy-relevant careers in the field of nuclear security. Corporation support will enable the university to host a research assistant through the provision of a fellowship.
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Project Title
For support for the Security Studies Program
Date
Mar. 10, 2022
Duration
29 months
Description
With support for the field of security studies on the decline, tomorrow’s scholars and practitioners have fewer opportunities to develop the interdisciplinary skills needed to address complex challenges. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Security Studies Program (SSP) is a research group and graduate-level educational center with a dual mission of improving public understanding of national security and training future scholars, teachers, and analysts. SSP’s work is rigorous, policy-relevant, and interdisciplinary, combining political science, history, and the physical sciences. Corporation support will allow SSP scholars to continue their research, training, and policy outreach activities.
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Project Title
For core support of the Systems Awareness Lab
Date
Jun. 09, 2022
Duration
27 months
Description
There is a renewed and urgent call for foundational change in education systems. Emerging communities of educators and policy makers are leading the response, working together in new ways to design more equitable, just, healthy, sustainable, and effective educational systems. With prior Corporation support the Systems Awareness Lab at MIT was launched with the goal of developing a capacity among educators and key stakeholders to approach these challenges and opportunities through a systems thinking orientation that attends holistically to the wellbeing and achievement of children and adults. Continued support will allow the Lab to establish multidisciplinary methods to document, measure, and analyze how such change processes appear and grow over time, including efforts to embody, support, and coordinate systems change work.
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Project Title
For training national security experts on emerging technologies in nuclear nonproliferation and arms control
Date
Sep. 02, 2021
Duration
24 months
Description
Addressing challenges like nuclear verification and deterrence requires deep technical proficiency.Through this project, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will train doctoral students and develop future researchers in nuclear security, with a particular focus on emerging technologies. These students will focus on the implications of advances in precision guidance and mobile missile tracking, as well as the potential application of developments in information theory to future warhead verification.
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Project Title
For a digital rapid response capability for nuclear crises
Date
Jun. 03, 2021
Duration
21 months
Description
With the public increasingly getting its news from social media, the nuclear policy community must accelerate its transition to digital communications to remain relevant.Thisproject, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), will build capacity within the nuclear security community to rapidly respond to the next nuclear crisis with timely digital assessments and outputs. Working with leading communications experts, this multi-disciplinary MIT team willwork closely with nuclear policy organizations to generate fact-based responses in real-time to emerging events.
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Project Title
For the launch of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab
Date
Sep. 02, 2021
Duration
11 months
Description
There is a renewed and urgent call for foundational change in education systems. Emerging communities of educators and policy makers are leading the response, working together in new ways to design more equitable, just, healthy, sustainable and effective educational systems. MIT, together with the Center for Systems Awareness, have been an important part of this effort, in developing a capacity among educators and key stakeholders to approach these challenges and opportunities through a systems thinking orientation that attends holistically to the wellbeing and achievement of children and adults within systems of education. There is now an opportunity to develop and carry out rigorous study of these systems change processes across large education systems.This grant would support the official launch of the Systems Awareness Lab at MIT, which aims to document, measure, and analyze how such change processes appear and grow over time through small local and large-scale change efforts across individuals, small groups, large organizations, and state-wide and global systems.
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Project Title
For support for the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 04, 2020
Duration
24 months
Description
With support for the field of security studies on the decline, tomorrow’s scholars and practitioners have fewer opportunities to develop the interdisciplinary skills needed to address complex challenges. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Security Studies Program (SSP) is a research group and graduate-level educational center with a dual mission of improving public understanding of national security and training future scholars, teachers, and analysts. SSP’s work is rigorous, policy-relevant, and interdisciplinary, combining political science, history, and the physical sciences. Corporation support will allow SSP scholars to continue their research, training, and policy outreach activities.
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Project Title
For building a rapid digital response capacity in the nuclear policy community
Date
Sep. 12, 2019
Duration
23 months
Description
The majority of the public now gets its news from social media, and if the nuclear policy community wants to remain relevant, it must accelerate its transition to a hybrid approach emphasizing digital communications. This project, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), provides a foundation for these efforts. MIT will conduct research into the communications landscape and how organizations are navigating within it. The team will then share its findings and help build a digital rapid response capacity so nuclear policy groups can provide fact-based responses in real-time to emerging events or crises.
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Project Title
For training technical policy experts on new technologies
Date
Sep. 12, 2019
Duration
24 months
Description
There are too few independent analysts with deep technical proficiency who focus on issues of nuclear verification and deterrence. Through this project, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will train graduate students and develop future researchers in nuclear security, with a particular focus on emerging technologies. These doctoral students will focus on the implications of advances in precision guidance and mobile missile tracking, as well as on how advances in information theory might be applied to future warhead verification.
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Project Title
For support of the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 14, 2018
Duration
24 months
Description
With support for the field of security studies on the decline, tomorrow’s scholars and practitioners have fewer opportunities to develop the interdisciplinary skills needed to address complex challenges. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Security Studies Program (SSP) is a research group and graduate-level educational center with a dual mission of improving public understanding of national security and training future scholars, teachers, and analysts. SSP’s work is rigorous, policy-relevant, and interdisciplinary, combining political science, history, and other social sciences with the physical sciences. Corporation support will allow SSP scholars to continue their research, training, and policy outreach activities.
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Project Title
For the 2018 Roundtable on Military Cyber Stability (RMCS)
Date
Jun. 14, 2018
Duration
38 months
Description
The rapidly evolving digital revolution is introducing a cyber dimension to international peace and security with potentially significant consequences in spheres ranging from nuclear security to social cohesion. Given the global dimension of the challenge, the world’s major cyber powers must engage in discussions about the rules for inter-state use of cyber even as they wrestle with national policies on these issues. To foster such engagements, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology will convene American, Russian, and Chinese security and cyber-security experts to identify international risks posed by an increasing reliance on digital technology and develop mechanisms to mitigate the risks. The discussions will include transparency and confidence building measures.
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Project Title
For a project to design and implement a system of text-message alerts to families about their child’s academic performance
Date
Sep. 13, 2018
Duration
49 months
Description
Many efforts over the last decade to raise student achievement have had uneven results across the country and average achievement among children from low-income or minority backgrounds continues to fare lower than their wealthier peers. We know from national surveys supported by the Corporation and conducted by Learning Heroes that while nine in ten K-8 parents believe their child performs at or above grade level in math and reading, barely a third of students demonstrate the ability to perform at this level. Using technology as a platform to support communications has been proven to be an efficient and scalable way of leveraging family engagement, but such programs serve only parents of pre-kindergarten and elementary students. To fill this gap, Dr. Peter Bergman, assistant professor of economics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, has conducted various studies on the impact of parent-facing applications serving middle and high school families. With Corporation support, Dr. Bergman and his team will create an application for sharing information with parents via text-messages, and will pilot the application to obtain feedback for refining the tool. In so doing, the team will support families of children in the middle and high school years, improve student achievement, and generate knowledge for the field.
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Project Title
For technical innovation in nonproliferation verification
Date
Sep. 07, 2017
Duration
24 months
Description
There are too few independent analysts with deep technical proficiency working on evolving challenges in verification and deterrence. Through this project, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will train graduate student in order to develop future researchers in the field of nuclear security, with a particular focus on emerging technologies. Students will focus on the implications of advances in tracking mobile missile systems and in precision guidance. The grant will also support a doctoral student to complete work on studying how advances in information theory could be applied to nuclear-warhead verification. This project advances the Corporation’s work on technological change and nuclear risk.
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Project Title
For a project in support of the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 04, 2015
Duration
36 months
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Project Title
For a project to train interdisciplinary nuclear specialists
Date
Jun. 04, 2015
Duration
29 months
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Project Title
For the Nuclear Studies Research Initiative
Date
Sep. 11, 2014
Duration
20 months
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Project Title
For an online education policy initiative
Date
Jun. 12, 2014
Duration
23 months
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Project Title
As a final grant for support of research, meetings, and dissemination on "Missed Opportunities in the U.S.-Iran Relationship 1979-2012"
Date
Sep. 12, 2013
Duration
108 months
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Project Title
For the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 14, 2012
Duration
36 months
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Project Title
For a study on transforming manufacturing in the United States
Date
Mar. 10, 2011
Duration
30 months
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Project Title
Toward the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 03, 2010
Duration
24 months
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Project Title
As a final grant toward a project on providing access to online laboratories for selected African universities
Date
Sep. 10, 2009
Duration
30 months
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Project Title
For a conference on the U.S. Electoral College and its impact on Presidential elections
Date
Sep. 11, 2008
Duration
2 months
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Project Title
Toward an oral history project on U.S. and Iran relations
Date
Sep. 11, 2008
Duration
60 months
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Project Title
Toward the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 12, 2008
Duration
24 months
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Project Title
For a project on providing access to online laboratories for selected African universities
Date
Sep. 27, 2007
Duration
24 months
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Project Title
As a final grant for a seminar series on biosecurity and national security
Date
Sep. 27, 2007
Duration
17 months
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Project Title
Toward the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 08, 2006
Duration
24 months
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Project Title
For a seminar series on biosecurity and national security
Date
Sep. 28, 2006
Duration
10 months
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Project Title
For a seminar series on biosecurity and national security
Date
Mar. 03, 2005
Duration
13 months
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Project Title
Toward a project on providing access to online laboratories for selected African universities
Date
Mar. 03, 2005
Duration
28 months
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Project Title
Toward the Security Studies Program
Date
Jun. 09, 2005
Duration
12 months
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Project Title
As a final grant toward a joint project with the California Institute of Technology on voting technology
Date
Jun. 09, 2005
Duration
30 months
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Project Title
For planning a project on providing access to online laboratories for selected African universities
Date
Sep. 30, 2004
Duration
11 months