Denying U.S. Adversaries Access to Sensitive Nuclear, Missile, and Advanced Technical Expertise for Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs that Threaten America

Closed Posted

Opportunity number
DFOP0017252
Agency
Applications due
Award size
$100,000 to $2,000,000

Opportunity facts

Assistance listings
Funding instrument
Cooperative Agreement
Category
  • Other
Eligible applicants
Not on record
Points of contact

Opportunity details come from Grants.gov. Updated .

About this opportunity

Written by GovTribe AI ·

The Department of State's Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN/CTR) is seeking cooperative agreements through the Nonproliferation Scientist Engagement Program (NSEP) to prevent U.S. adversaries from exploiting civilian scientists, technicians, and engineers with sensitive nuclear, missile, and advanced technological expertise. The program specifically targets experts from countries like Iran, North Korea, and China who might be vulnerable to recruitment for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs that threaten U.S. national security. Applicants must demonstrate the ability to provide rapid knowledge security training, offer commercialization support, and match scientists with U.S. scientific partners to redirect their expertise away from potential threats. Evaluation criteria will likely focus on proposals that most effectively protect America's technological edge, build private sector scientific partnerships, and mitigate risks of technology transfer to adversarial states. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) indicates applications are due by July 30, 2025, with an anticipated project start date of January 1, 2026.

The federal grant opportunity will award approximately 10 cooperative agreements with individual award values ranging from $100,000 to $2,000,000, with a total available funding pool of $6,000,000 for fiscal years 2025-2026. Eligible applicants include U.S. for-profit organizations, non-profits, higher education institutions, foreign NGOs, and public international organizations. The program anticipates project performance periods between 12-24 months, with a primary geographic focus on Europe and Central Asia. Projects will be funded through the Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs (NADR) account and fall under the Global Threat Reduction program (CFDA Number 19.033).

Synopsis

ISN/CTR created the Nonproliferation Scientist Engagement Program (NSEP) to provide focused, near-term national security engagement to civilian scientists, technicians, and engineers (STE) with nuclear, missile, and other advanced WMD-relevant technical expertise who are geographically displaced or otherwise rendered financially vulnerable to exploitation by Iran, North Korea, China, or other U.S. adversaries for WMD programs that threaten the American homeland, American lives, and American prosperity. Tailored for FY 25/26 to advance President Trump's Maximum Pressure Campaign on Iran, address North Korea's WMD and ballistic missile programs, and deny the Chinese Communist Party access to expertise to advance WMD programs designed to challenge American security and American leadership, NSEP focuses narrowly on the subset of civilian STEs who have scientific or engineering expertise that could be redirected and exploited by U.S. adversaries to support nuclear, ballistic missile, and advanced weapons programs that could be used to attack the United States. Additionally, this program protects America's technological edge by preventing expertise proliferation of sensitive technical expertise to U.S. adversaries and builds U.S. private sector and related scientific partnerships with these scientists instead.

Files

File Type Posted
CTR NOFO Q&A - posted 11 July.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - Final posted 28 July.pdf PDF
CTR NOFO Q&A - Posted 20 June 2025.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - posted 8 July.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - 6 June.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - posted 25 July.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - 13 June 2025.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - For teams to added to - posted 27 June.docx DOCX document
CTR NOFO Q&A - Posted 18 July 2025.docx DOCX document
Monitoring Indicator Table Sample.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
Monitoring Indicator Table Sample.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
FY25 CTR Project Narrative Template 250401.docx DOCX document
FY25 CTR Project Narrative Template 250708.docx DOCX document
FY25 CTR Consolidated Project List.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
FY 2025 Budget Template 241004.xlsx XLSX spreadsheet
NSEP FY25 NOFO DFOP0017252 - 30 May 2025.docx DOCX document
NSEP FY25 NOFO DFOP0017252 - 6 June 2025.docx DOCX document
Show all 17

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