Scope and Opportunity
In the United States, the relationship between national security and nuclear weapons has become the subject of new and more intense debates. Arguments have included the value of modern nuclear weapons and a robust production infrastructure, disarmament and arms control, and the linkages among these issues. Recent geopolitical developments have reinvigorated some of these disagreements while also raising new questions about the role of nuclear weapons in enabling and deterring aggression, crisis management, and global security regimes.
To bring the array of analytical, scientific, and technical expertise residing within the nongovernmental sector to bear on fundamental decisions concerning nuclear security, Carnegie Corporation of New York has launched a Request for Proposals (RFP) for projects that will increase understanding of the politics of nuclear weapons policy in the United States. Through a competitive process, philanthropic grants between $100,000 and $500,000 will be given to projects that may run up to 24 months. The deadline for submission of a project proposal is January 15, 2023. More details are provided below.
Objectives
The RFP seeks projects that aim to engage a broader range of voices and perspectives in generating new knowledge and assessing the contemporary politics of nuclear weapons policy in the United States and its future directions. In particular, the RFP aims to explore the roles of the following entities in U.S. nuclear weapons policies:
- Congress
- Domestic grassroots advocacy and social movements
- International and/or transnational civil society groups
- Allies and their concerns about extended deterrence
- Nonnuclear weapons states and their agency in global security regimes
Requirements
Proposals must answer each of the following questions:
- What is the knowledge gap your project addresses and why is filling that gap important for a specific aspect of nuclear security?
- What activities will you undertake and why do you believe these are sound approaches?
- What do you anticipate will be the biggest challenges, and what mechanisms, institutions, and/or individuals will be critical for success?
- Who will be your key audiences, and what will be the main elements of your dissemination plan?
- Why are your institution(s) and people well-positioned to carry out this work?
- How much funding are you requesting from the Corporation, what is the estimated total cost of the project, and do you have any other complementary sources of support?
Additional Considerations
Projects are highly encouraged to:
- Focus on plausibility probes for innovative ideas
- Apply insights from other areas to better understand the politics of nuclear policy and/or:
- Involve collaborations among American and foreign experts, experts who are new to the nuclear security field, and/or experts from underrepresented communities
Eligibility
- Think tanks, university-based centers, and independent nongovernmental organizations are eligible to apply. Different centers/schools at the same university may each submit one proposal. Think tanks may submit one proposal for the entire institution.
- Applying organizations must be based in the United States but are encouraged, where applicable, to have international partners.
- Proposals must be submitted by an organization; individual researchers are not eligible for consideration.
- Preference will be given to those organizations that currently are not Corporation grantees.
- Projects may build on past or current work but must represent an expansion or evolution of that work.
Application Process and Timeline
- Applicants should submit a project proposal. This should consist of one document containing two parts: a project proposal running no more than three pages, and one additional page with brief biographies of the principal investigator/s and key project personnel.
- Proposals must be formatted as a PDF with double spacing and appropriate margins.
- All proposals must be submitted online before midnight ET on January 15, 2023.
- Finalists will be contacted by March 31, 2023, with an invitation to submit a full proposal.
Questions? Please email IP_RFP@carnegie.org.