Submitted by Scott Jaschik on April 16, 2008 - 4:00am
Defense secretary discusses plans for new university consortia and grants -- largely in social sciences -- for non-classified research, and pledges no political restrictions.
When Robert M. Gates, the secretary of defense, announced plans for the Minerva Consortia last month, he surprised many social scientists. Gates proposed the creation of a series of university-based consortiums to support research on questions of importance to the military, but said that the research would be unclassified and would not be subject to political litmus tests.
Pentagon officials are talking with the National Science Foundation about the NSF playing a major role in the peer review for a new program to promote social science research on topics that relate to key issues in U.S. foreign policy.
Defense secretary's speech renews debate about ROTC at top universities, but contrary to widespread belief, units continue to thrive at some Ivies and liberal-leaning publics.
