Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI)
Open
U.S. National Science Foundation is offering grants of up to $1.2 million to the applicants described in the notice. It expects to make about 20 awards worth $12.0 million in total. Applications close on January 20, 2027.
From the official notice on Grants.gov, last changed October 5, 2026. Checked October 31, 2026.
- Award ceiling$1.2 million
- Award floornot stated
- Expected awards20
- Total funding$12.0 million
- Cost sharingNot required
- Funding typeGrant
Key dates
| Posted | January 4, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Deadline | January 20, 2027 |
| Archived by Grants.gov | February 19, 2027 |
Add the deadline to your calendar
Who can apply
This opportunity is open to the applicants described in the notice.
- Others (see text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification)
*Who May Submit Proposals: Proposals may only be submitted by the following: -Non-profit, non-academic organizations: Independent museums, observatories, research laboratories, professional societies and similar organizations located in the U.S. that are directly associated with educational or research activities. -Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs): Two- and four-year IHEs (including community colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US, acting on behalf of their faculty members. Special Instructions for International Branch Campuses of US IHEs: If the proposal includes funding to be provided to an international branch campus of a US institution of higher education (including through use of sub-awards and consultant arrangements), the proposer must explain the benefit(s) to the project of performance at the international branch campus, and justify why the project activities cannot be performed at the US campus.
Is this a realistic fit?
- No cost sharing or match is required.
What the grant funds
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.
How to apply
- Read the full notice and attachments on Grants.gov and the agency's announcement. The notice is the official source for deadlines and requirements.
- Make sure your organization has an active SAM.gov registration and Unique Entity ID; registration can take several weeks.
- Register on Grants.gov and submit through Workspace before the deadline and time given in the notice. Our application guide walks through each step.
Questions go to U.S. National Science Foundation, grantsgovsupport@nsf.gov, 703-292-4203.
Questions people ask
Who can apply for Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI)?
U.S. National Science Foundation accepts applications from the applicants described in the notice. The notice adds further conditions, so read its eligibility section.
What is the deadline for Cybersecurity Innovation for Cyberinfrastructure (CICI)?
Closes January 20, 2027 (81 days left). Confirm the date and time in the official notice on Grants.gov.
How much funding is available?
Awards of up to $1.2 million each. About $12.0 million in total across about 20 awards.
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