In today’s increasingly networked, distributed, and asynchronous world, cybersecurity and privacy involve hardware, software, networks, data, people, and integration with the physical world. Society’s overwhelming reliance on this complex cyberspace, however, has exposed its fragility and vulnerabilities that defy existing cyber-defense measures; corporations, agencies, national infrastructure and individuals continue to suffer cyber-attacks. Achieving a truly secure cyberspace requires addressing both challenging scientific and engineering problems involving many components of a system, complex interactions among systems/components, and vulnerabilities that stem from human behaviors and choices. Examining the fundamentals of cybersecurity and privacy as a multidisciplinary subject can lead to fundamentally new ways to design, build and operate cyber systems, protect existing infrastructure, and motivate and educate individuals about cybersecurity and privacy.
The Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program welcomes proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and draw on expertise in one or more of these areas: computing, communication and information sciences; engineering; economics; education; mathematics; statistics; and social and behavioral sciences. Proposals that advance the field of cybersecurity and privacy within a single discipline or interdisciplinary efforts that span multiple disciplines are both encouraged. Please see the SaTC program solicitation (NSF 21-500, https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21500/nsf21500.htm ) for more details.
Through this solicitation—under the SaTC umbrella—NSF specifically seeks ambitious and potentially transformative center-scale projects in the area of cybersecurity and privacy that (1) catalyze far-reaching research explorations motivated by deep scientific questions or hard problems and/or by compelling applications and novel technologies that promise significant scientific and/or societal benefits, and (2) stimulate significant research and education outcomes that, through effective knowledge transfer mechanisms, promise scientific, economic and/or other societal benefits. The goal of the SaTC Frontiers program is to advance the frontiers of cybersecurity and privacy, and the areas listed in the SaTC program solicitation (NSF 21-500, https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21500/nsf21500.htm ) are meant to be illustrative but not exhaustive.
The SaTC Frontiers program will support proposals from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 in total budget, with durations of up to five years.
Deadlines:
Letter of Intent Due Date(s) (required) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): Sep. 7, 2021
Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): Nov. 17, 2021
Proposals may only be submitted by the following:
As of the submission deadline, PIs, co-PIs, or other Senior Personnel must hold primary, full-time, paid appointments in research or teaching positions at US-based campuses/offices of organizations eligible to submit to this solicitation (see above), with exceptions granted for family or medical leave, as determined by the submitting institution. Individuals with primary appointments at for-profit or overseas branch campuses of US IHEs are not eligible, even if they also have an appointment at a US campus.
An individual can participate as a PI, co-PI or Senior Personnel on no more than one SaTC Frontiers proposal. This limit is unrelated to any limits imposed in the SaTC solicitation (NSF 21-500) or any other NSF solicitations. These eligibility constraints will be strictly enforced in order to treat everyone fairly and consistently. In the event that an individual exceeds the one-proposal limit for this solicitation, the proposal received within the limit will be accepted based on earliest date and time of proposal submission (i.e., the first proposal received will be accepted and the remainder will be returned without review). No exceptions will be made.
Estimated Number of Awards: 2
Anticipated Funding Amount: $15,000,000
Award Size: $5,000,000 - $10,000,000 in total budget, with durations of up to five years.
Estimated program budget, number of awards and average award size/duration are subject to the availability of funds.
