Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure | 18 547

Opportunity Information: Apply for 18 547

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI) grant opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number 18-547) supports research and development projects that strengthen cybersecurity across the full scientific cyberinfrastructure (CI) landscape. The central goal is to develop, deploy, and integrate practical security solutions that protect the end-to-end scientific workflow, with an emphasis on improving integrity (trust that results and data have not been altered improperly), resilience (ability to withstand and recover from attacks or failures), and reliability (consistent, dependable operation of the systems scientists rely on). In plain terms, the program is aimed at keeping the tools, platforms, networks, and data pipelines used in research more secure without breaking the way science gets done.

CICI is organized around three project categories. The first, Secure Scientific Cyberinfrastructure, focuses on new and trustworthy security architectures and designs that can be applied across the entire CI ecosystem. Projects in this category are expected to look beyond isolated fixes and instead propose holistic, integrated approaches such as new security models, frameworks, or end-to-end design patterns that better secure how scientific computing, instruments, data systems, identity and access management, and collaborative platforms fit together. The intent is to reduce security gaps that occur when different parts of the scientific workflow are secured unevenly or with incompatible assumptions, and to encourage approaches that can realistically be adopted by the research community.

The second category, Collaborative Security Response Center, is structured as a single award to create a shared community resource. The aim is to provide security monitoring, analysis, expertise, and practical resources to Research and Education (R&E) cyberinfrastructure staff, regardless of where they are located or which organization they work for. This reflects a common challenge in academic and research environments: many institutions operate complex infrastructure with limited dedicated security staffing, while threats often span multiple campuses, facilities, and networks. A collaborative response center would help coordinate detection and response, share knowledge and tooling, and generally raise the baseline of operational security support available to the broader community.

The third category, Research Data Protection, targets solutions that protect research datasets while also ensuring data provenance, meaning the ability to track and verify where data came from, how it was produced, and what transformations it underwent over time. The program also stresses reducing the complexity of protecting research data regardless of funding source, which points to solutions that can be applied broadly across disciplines and projects rather than being narrowly tailored to a single grant, lab, or dataset. In practice, this category emphasizes scalable, usable approaches to data security that make it easier for researchers and cyberinfrastructure operators to meet confidentiality, integrity, and stewardship expectations without excessive operational burden.

Administratively, this opportunity is a discretionary NSF grant under the Science and Technology and other Research and Development funding activity category, with CFDA number 47.070. The solicitation was created on March 7, 2018, with an original closing date of June 4, 2018, and NSF anticipated making about 12 awards. The listing shows an award ceiling of $0, which typically indicates that a fixed maximum was not specified in the summarized record and applicants would need to refer to the full solicitation for budget guidance and any category-specific funding expectations. Eligibility is listed as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," meaning the full announcement would define which organizations or types of entities could apply and under what conditions.

Overall, CICI is geared toward advancing cybersecurity capabilities that are not just theoretically strong but also deployable and integrable in real scientific environments. The program’s structure makes clear that NSF is looking for improvements at multiple levels: foundational security architecture for scientific systems, shared community-scale operational security capacity, and robust yet usable protections for the research data that scientific discovery depends on.

• The National Science Foundation in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 47.070.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 07, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 04, 2018. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for 18 547

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