On March 15, 2019 the US National Science Foundations (NSF) sent out a call for applications (NSF 19-050) for their new Convergence Accelerator Pilot (NSF C-Accel). The accelerator program stems from the NSF Growing Convergence Research which began March 31, 2017 as “one of 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments”. [3]
The NSF Convergence Accelerator (C-Accel) seeks to encourage public-private partnerships (Cohorts). The initial set of pilot awards are focused on two of the NSF Big Ideas: Harnessing the Data Revolution (Track A) [surveillance?] and Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (Track B) [trans-humanism?]. The idea is to support projects “that are identifying new ways to apply Big Data to science and engineering and create technologies that can enhance the lives of American workers.”
NSF C-Accel issued it’s first round of awards in September 2019 totaling $39 million. [ The C-Accel is “a new capability within NSF to accelerate use-inspired, convergence research in areas of national importance via partnerships between academic and non-academic stakeholders.” $27M in 2020 and $50M in 2021, $12M in 2022 [6]
By October 2022 the NSF C-Accel program awards $5 million to accelerate “Phase II development of the Analysis and Response Toolkit for Trust (ARTT) [1, 2], a suite of expert-informed resources that are intended to provide guidance and encouragement to individuals and communities as they address contentious or difficult topics online.” Phase II is led by Hacks/Hackers , a non-profit organization focused on journalism and technology.
This $5M funds software and behavioural science to manipulate and control free thinking and create bots to counter “misinformation” online! “Users are encouraged to paste in their friends’ Twitter and Facebook posts, and the tool will tell them how “harmful” they are.” with emphasis on vaccine misinformation! Hacks/Hackers said “Additional advising in Phase I has come from members of WHO’s Vaccine Safety Net.” [4, 5]