The Department of Defense today announced the selection of a team of United States and United Kingdom academic researchers to investigate the growing threat that malign social influence campaigns pose to democracies. Awarded through the Bilateral Academic Research Initiative (BARI)'s Social Science Program, the project, "Influence, Manipulation, and Information Threats as Adversarial Techniques: Events, Evolution, and Effects," is led by Professor Jacob Shapiro at Princeton University in the U.S. and Professor Martin Innes at Cardiff University in the U.K.
Over the project's three-year duration, the U.S. research team will receive up to $2.6 million from the Minerva Research Initiative, DoD's singular social science program within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)). The U.K. team will receive up to £2.87 million, or approximately $3.7 million, from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI).
"The BARI program showcases the remarkable potential of international collaboration. By combining the diverse perspectives and expertise of leading scientists from the U.S. and U.K., this initiative will drive important advancements in scientific fields of mutual interest to both nations," said Dr. David Montgomery, who leads the Minerva program as the director of social science in OUSD(R&E)'s Basic Research Office.
BARI awards allow academic teams from the United States and United Kingdom to merge their unique skill sets and methodologies to pursue high-risk basic research. For this year's social science competition, BARI organizers asked for proposals addressing the topic "Understanding and Influencing Behavior Below the Threshold of Armed Conflict: Countering Influence that Leads to Socio-economic and Political Instability.
"Now, as much as at any time in history, we need to understand and counter the misinformation and manipulation spread by hostile states to destabilize the world's democracies. BARI's Social Science Program represents the joining of forces between two of the world's social science superpowers to the mutual benefit of both nations and to the benefit of people everywhere," said Stian Westlake, executive chair of the ESRC.
BARI is jointly sponsored by the OUSD(R&E) Basic Research Office and the ESRC as part of UKRI. The project will be managed by subject matter experts from the Minerva Research Initiative, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the ESRC as part of the UKRI.
