Advanced public and private research organizations, technology industries, and start-up communities are vulnerable to theft and loss of WMD applicable critical advanced and emerging technologies, data, intellectual property (IP), knowledge, and talent that can be leveraged for military end uses by the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) and other actors. The Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction (ISN/CTR) is pleased to announce an open competition for assistance awards through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). ISN/CTR sponsors foreign assistance activities funded by the Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and
Related Programs (NADR) and other accounts, and focuses on mitigating weapons of massdestruction (WMD) and WMD-related delivery systems proliferation and security threats from non-state actors and proliferator states. An underlying aim of all ISN/CTR’s efforts is long-term sustainability to maximize programmatic impact while minimizing the need for foreign partners to rely on outside financial or technical assistance. Please follow all instructions below.
This NOFO covers ISN/CTR’s line of effort (LOE) to Counter the Misuse of Advanced and Emerging Technologies. Priority Regions: East Asia Pacific (Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic
of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam); Europe (Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland,
Georgia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Türkiye); Middle East and North
Africa (Israel, Morocco, United Arab Emirates); South Central Asia (India, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan); Sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South
Africa, Tanzania); Western Hemisphere (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico)
Program Objectives:
Advanced public and private research organizations, technology industries, and start-up
communities are vulnerable to theft and loss of WMD-applicable critical advanced and
emerging technologies, data, intellectual property (IP), knowledge, and talent that can be
leveraged for military end uses by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and other actors.
Malign actors use legal and illegal means such as mergers and acquisitions, joint commercial
ventures, talent recruitment programs, research partnerships, and state-sponsored industrial
espionage, to acquire foreign intellectual capital and IP to advance key priorities. Affiliations
and links to military entities are often obfuscated or disguised when establishing research
collaborations or to gain admission and secure visas to study WMD-enabling advanced and
emerging technologies at foreign universities; and to procure WMD-enabling equipment and
components from unsuspecting or indiscriminate commercial or scientific institutions.
ISN/CTR seeks to protect WMD-applicable critical advanced and emerging technologies from
licit or illicit transfer in several key areas, including but not limited to: aerospace and space
technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnologies, cloud services, neuroscience, artificial
intelligence, quantum computing and sensing, and semiconductors. ISN/CTR’s programmatic
pillars to protect these technologies are listed below. ISN/CTR does not focus programmatic
efforts on technologies that are already addressed under existing international nonproliferation
instruments (e.g., Australia Group) or are already subject to strategic trade and export controls
(e.g., Commerce Control List).