Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure | 19 514

Opportunity Information: Apply for 19 514

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI) program (Funding Opportunity No. 19-514) is a discretionary grant opportunity focused on strengthening cybersecurity across the full lifecycle of modern scientific research. The program is aimed at developing, deploying, and integrating practical security solutions that protect the integrity of research processes, improve the resilience of the systems researchers rely on, and increase the overall reliability of end-to-end scientific workflows. In plain terms, CICI is about making sure that the computing environments, data pipelines, instruments, software, networks, and shared platforms used in science can be trusted and can withstand attacks, failures, and misuse without undermining research results.

CICI is organized around three project categories that reflect different but related needs in the scientific cyberinfrastructure ecosystem. The first category, Secure Scientific Cyberinfrastructure (SSC), emphasizes broad, system-level security improvements. Projects in this area are expected to propose and validate new architectures, designs, models, or frameworks that make security a built-in, holistic property of scientific cyberinfrastructure rather than an add-on. The focus is on integrated security that spans the full scientific CI ecosystem, which can include authentication and authorization, secure workflow orchestration, trustworthy software and services, secure computing at scale, and approaches that work across organizational boundaries where research collaborations commonly operate.

The second category, Research Data Protection (RDP), concentrates specifically on safeguarding research data throughout its lifecycle. These projects are intended to reduce the real-world complexity researchers face when trying to protect datasets, especially when those datasets are distributed, accessed by multiple collaborators, or handled across different platforms and funding contexts. A key priority in RDP is data provenance, meaning solutions should help ensure the origin, chain of custody, and history of research data are verifiable and trustworthy. The intent is not only to prevent unauthorized access or tampering, but also to support confidence in scientific results by making it easier to demonstrate that data has not been altered improperly and that it can be traced back through the workflow reliably.

The third category, Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (CCoE), is aimed at creating a centralized resource for the NSF community that provides leadership, expertise, and guidance in trustworthy cyberinfrastructure. Rather than focusing only on a single technical solution, a CCoE award is designed to serve as a hub that helps the broader research community adopt stronger security practices, align efforts, share knowledge, and coordinate improvements across projects and institutions. The emphasis is on building a sustained capability that can influence and support the NSF research ecosystem at large, elevating cybersecurity maturity for scientific infrastructure in a consistent and scalable way.

Administratively, this opportunity is offered by the NSF under CFDA 47.070 (science and technology and other research and development) and uses the grant funding instrument. The original posting lists an expected number of 12 awards. An award ceiling is not specified in the provided source data (listed as 0), which typically indicates that applicants should rely on the solicitation details and NSF guidance for budgeting expectations rather than assuming a published maximum. The opportunity was created on October 27, 2018, with an original closing date of January 23, 2019. Eligibility is noted as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," meaning the solicitation itself would define which organizations and entities may apply, often including universities, nonprofit research organizations, and other qualified institutions depending on NSF rules.

Overall, CICI is best understood as NSF support for cybersecurity work that is tightly coupled to real scientific practice: protecting workflows, making research data more trustworthy and easier to secure, and building community-wide expertise and coordination so that cybersecurity improvements can be adopted broadly across shared cyberinfrastructure.

• 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 Oct 27, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jan 23, 2019. (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).

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