Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure
Can you apply?
This grant is for research institutions and higher education organizations seeking to advance cybersecurity in scientific infrastructure. Eligible applicants include U.S. institutions of higher education (two- and four-year colleges, including community colleges) and non-profit research organizations such as independent museums, observatories, labs, and professional societies based in the U.S. The grant supports cybersecurity research across four focus areas: collaborative security for science, reference security datasets, infrastructure resilience, and AI data integrity. International branch campuses may participate only with demonstrated project benefits and justification that work cannot occur at U.S. campuses.
Program description
The objective of the Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI) program is to advance scientific discovery and innovation by enhancing the security and privacy of cyberinfrastructure. CICI supports efforts to develop, deploy and integrate cybersecurity that will benefit the broader scientific community by securing science data, computation, collaborations workflows, and infrastructure. CICI recognizes the unique nature of modern, complex, data-driven, distributed, rapid, and collaborative science and the breadth of infrastructure and requirements across scientific disciplines, practitioners, researchers, and projects. CICI seeks proposals in four program areas:
1. Usable and Collaborative Security for Science (UCSS): Projects in this program area should support novel and/or applied security and usability research that facilitates scientific collaboration, encourages the adoption of security into the scientific workflow, and helps create a holistic, integrated security environment that spans the entire scientific cyberinfrastructure ecosystem.
2. Reference Scientific Security Datasets (RSSD): Projects in this program area should leverage instrumented cyberinfrastructure to capture metadata from scientific workflows and workloads as reference data artifacts that can help support reproducible security research, testing and evaluation.
3. Transition to Cyberinfrastructure Resilience (TCR): Projects in this program area should improve the robustness, trustworthiness, integrity, and/or resilience of scientific cyberinfrastructure through testing, evaluation, hardening, validation, and technology transition of novel cybersecurity research. The TCR area further encourages transition activities that advance the deployment and use of reproducibility in CI, workflows, and data.
4. Integrity, Provenance, and Authenticity for Artificial Intelligence Ready Data (IPAAI): Projects in this program area should enhance confidence and reproducibility in AI produced scientific results by improving the integrity, provenance, and authenticity of scientific datasets used by Artificial Intelligence systems.
Who can apply
Eligible applicants
How to apply
Application links
Key dates & requirements
Required documents
- NSF PAPPG proposal form (check current year template)
- Project narrative
- Budget and budget justification
- Institutional authorization/signature
- Curriculum vitae of key personnel
- Letters of commitment from partner institutions (if applicable)
Program contact
- 👤 U.S. National Science Foundation
- 📧 grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov
- 📞 703-292-4203
Funding track record
Recent awards under CFDA 47.070 from the last 3 years — real organizations that won funding through this same program.
Top 10 Largest Recent Awards
-
$975,888,088
-
$376,000,000
-
$146,395,788
-
$84,249,997
-
$78,999,134
-
$38,082,925
-
$37,758,328
-
$37,023,406
-
$36,793,220
-
$31,497,099
Top States by Funding
- CO 6 awards $1,049.0M
- TX 9 awards $651.6M
- IL 10 awards $304.8M
- CA 16 awards $228.2M
- IN 3 awards $93.7M
Source: USAspending.gov — federal spending transparency. Data covers last 3 years.
Funding history
Annual funding for this program — Federal obligations (CFDA 47.070). How funding has trended year over year.
| 2024 | $965,230,000 | |
| 2025 | $916,340,000 | |
| 2026 est. | $331,630,000 |
FAQ
Who can apply for CICI funding?
U.S. institutions of higher education and non-profit research organizations like museums, observatories, and labs can apply. International branch campuses of U.S. institutions need approval and justification.
What is the funding range for this grant?
The program is not specified, with awards up to $1,200,000 available from a $12,000,000 total funding pool.
What research topics does CICI support?
CICI funds four areas: usable collaborative security for science, reference security datasets, cyberinfrastructure resilience, and AI data integrity and provenance.
Is cost sharing required?
No, this is a non-cost-sharing grant. Your organization does not need to provide matching funds.
When is the deadline?
The fixed deadline is January 20, 2027. Check the NSF website for any program updates or rolling deadlines.
💡 Tips for applicants
- Align your proposal clearly with one of the four program areas. Vague research that spans multiple areas is less competitive.
- Emphasize the broader scientific community benefit. Show how your security innovation helps multiple research fields and institutions.
- Address the unique challenges of distributed, collaborative science. Generic cybersecurity solutions won't score well.
- Include a realistic timeline and milestones. NSF reviewers assess feasibility and project management rigor carefully.
- Demonstrate institutional commitment. Letters of support from IT leadership and research partners strengthen your proposal significantly.
⚠️ Common mistakes
Proposals fail to clearly align with a specific program area or mix multiple focus areas without clear integration. Applications underestimate the complexity of scientific workflows and propose generic security solutions rather than discipline-specific approaches. Weak institutional support or unclear commitment from cyberinfrastructure teams reduces competitiveness.
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